Is online infidelity the last relationship taboo?
Jessica got more than she bargained for. She found out that Mike had been electronically cheating with a woman he had met on a business trip who lived in another city, but she also discovered discussion boards where he had posted various comments about strippers and private messages he’d sent to prostitutes. The depth of his betrayal was staggering. From the looks of it, he spent most of his time online cheating in one form or another. “I’d veer from feeling completely betrayed to thinking that it couldn’t possibly be true,” says Jessica. “I’d want to forgive him one minute and kick him out of my life the next.” (She chose the latter option.)
What’s not in question, then, is how damaging emotional infidelity can be. But how do you resist temptation when the opportunity to cheat is as plentiful as oxygen? One of the great things about the Internet has always been the freedom it offers us to connect with all kinds of people from all over the world. But now that being online has become a way of life, it turns out that what was always true about human nature is still true: We are never free from ourselves and our impulses. If we don’t want to jeopardize our real lives, we have to police our language, our subject matter and the amount of contact we have with others. We have to be on the lookout so that chatting doesn’t become cheating.
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