Oh, good! Just when we thought 2018 was going to be the year we’d really get our shit together re: interpersonal insecurities, here’s another totally manufactured bit of pop-psychology to give you the romantic willies: MICRO-CHEATING.
Because some people love nothing more than to incite epidemics of intimate partner side-eye, Australian psychologist Melanie Schilling has given an interview to the Daily Mail describing the novel concept of micro-cheating – small, apparently trivial actions that supposedly demonstrate that your attentions lie outside of your relationship.
You might be engaging in micro-cheating if you secretly connect with another person on social media, if you share private jokes, if you downplay the seriousness of your relationship to your partner or if you enter their name under a code in your phone,
These are all signs that you are conducting a “covert flirtation” and keeping it from your partner. If you feel you have something to hide – ask yourself why.
Ah yes, the absolute red flag of infidelity that is having a running joke with someone (gasp!) other than your partner. Put us in jail, we have been sprung.
While the definition of micro-cheating seems to have a lot of overlap with the slippery (and widely accepted) concept of the “emotional affair”, a lot of people just… are not having it.
https://twitter.com/thatcaseyquin/status/951521583440564226
https://twitter.com/mbarnett/status/951533878753161216
As far as I can tell “micro-cheating” means having friends and/or colleagues? It’s obviously all BS https://t.co/p6h1mwn0RJ
— Craig ‘Lost Limey’ Little🌹 (@lost_limey) January 11, 2018
https://twitter.com/JoeZuEmpPenguin/status/951548215764987904
https://twitter.com/eehouls/status/951513555391655938
https://twitter.com/BLASTPROCESSlNG/status/951432153761570816
https://twitter.com/RanaDelCarl/status/951546378819457024
Truly, let us all in this brand new year commit to calling bullshit what it actually is. Micro-cheating. Honestly.
