Five Ways To Protect Your Relationship From Online Cheating
In a virtual world, there are real world steps you can take to keep your relationship safe.
For obvious reasons, pretty much everywhere you look these days there are discussions about internet or electronic cheating. Between twitter, facebook, and text messages, itâs a whole new universe in relationships. The virtual world is working itâs way into real world relationships in ways that often arenât healthy. Thereâs no question the internet has made it easier to be unfaithful. There is some question about what unfaithful means.
Current studies show that as many as 33 percent of people surveyed say that texting, sexting, and online relationships arenât cheating if they donât cross the barrier of the physical. However, my general rule is if youâre doing something you know would make your significant other uncomfortable, cheating or not, you shouldnât be doing it. That kind of goes without saying. People know when they are crossing a line, no matter how they define the line.
So, how do you protect your relationship from virtual threats without unplugging completely?
1. Have a talk with your significant other about the issue of electronic communications. Donât assume you see eye to eye about whatâs appropriate and what isnât. Talk it over and set mutually agreed upon policies for your relationship where electronic communication is concerned.
2. Implement an open e-communication policy. This means all emails, chats, and texts are community property. He can look at yours at will and visa-versa. Usually when I suggest this to couples one or both gasp. When your email isnât on lock down and password protected itâs hard to even think about crossing the line, let alone moving towards it.
3. Limit the amount of time you spend online and do it as a couple. Reinvest the time you might be spending online into the relationship. This probably requires a conversation with your honey that goes something like this, âWe are both spending a lot of time online. Iâd like to spend more time experiencing the real world in real time with you. How can we spend more time together?â
4. Engage in the real world with real friends as a couple. Sometimes the reason people start going deeper online is because they lack social connection in their lives. Many people have more virtual friends then friends they hang out with. Social connections as a couple are very valuable. Building those social connections with other people will make the two of you closer.
5. Get seriously intimate in your relationship. Double up and then re-double your efforts to create and maintain an interesting relationship. Thereâs a reason people get lost online. They are bored or curious. You can take steps to eliminate boredom in your relationship. In fact you should. Itâs easy to put a relationship on auto-pilot and hope for the best, but it rarely works for very long. The key to success here is simple, be more interesting then Facebook.
Lisa Hayes C.Ht. is the Love Whisperer. She is a Law of Attraction Relationship Coach and author of The Passion Plan and Escape from Relationship Hell. She specializes in helping people get the love they want, no matter where they are in their lives. You can find her at her digit home, www.lisamhayes.com. Get her free audio, How to Talk to a Man, HERE.