In the Name of Love

A Philosopher Looks at Our Deepest Emotions

Aaron Ben-Zeév is President and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Haifa. His books include: In the Name of Love: Romantic Ideology and its Victims. See full bio

September 5, 2008, Relationships

Comments on "Is Chatting Cheating?"

Is Chatting Cheating?

By Aaron Ben-Zeév, Ph.D. on September 5, 2008 in In the Name of Love

Whereas people having online affairs tend to reduce their problematic nature, their offline partners often do not see any difference between online and offline affairs. Read More

Online affairs is a

Submitted by leau on September 5, 2008 - 7:45pm.

Online affairs is a conpromise between human nature and social circumstances.I am from china where the cyberflirts are catching up with the west but the sex seem not.

Emotional infidelity

Submitted by Michael J. Formica on September 6, 2008 - 4:59am.

Aaron:

Great article. I wanted to comment that, in my experience, fully 1/3 of the couples whom I see are dealing with issues of infidelity related to some form of cyber relationship, whether sexual or otherwise. Partners of the individual who has stepped outside the relationship typically view this circumstance as every bit as egregious as a direct sexual affair.

Thanks for the article.

Blessings,
Michael

Online Emotional infidelity

Submitted by Aaron Ben-Zeév, Ph.D. on September 6, 2008 - 5:17am.

Michael, Thanks for your kind words. We can expect that these relationships will become more prevalent in the near future and even more so in the more remote one when most of the population will have begun their online activities in their early youth. Online relationships seem to be the most serious challenge that long-term romantic relationships have ever been faced with. This is due, among other things, to the private, easily accessible, and inexpensive nature of cyberaffairs. All the best, Aaron

Some discussion of infidelity in Second Life

Submitted by Kate Amdahl on September 12, 2008 - 7:29am.

Hi Aaron,

I thought you did a wonderful job with this article (although there were a couple of spots I had minor issues with). If it's of any interest, I have a site where I report and comment on social issues, relationships and romance in the Second Life virtual world, and recently I've posted some articles with advice for cheaters and cheatees on the site:

http://kateamdahl.livejournal.com/tag/infidelity

^^^\ Kate /^^^

Chatting and cheating

Submitted by Joe Kort on September 14, 2008 - 7:25am.

Joe Kort, LMSW is a psychotherapist and author of several books on gay and lesbian identity and relationships. He keeps an updated website at www.joekort.com

This is a great article! I will pass it on to my clients both gay and straight couples. This comes up so often in my office and less so with my lesbian clients as it turns out.

Really wonderful article. It

Submitted by Anonymous on July 23, 2009 - 8:06pm.

Really wonderful article. It really hit home with a few things I had to deal with recently. Online relationships can be VERY hurtful to a spouse/girlfriend/boyfriend. Sometimes I don't think I'll ever really recover from how badly I was hurt. My advice would be, "be open" and if you are with someone who believes an online relationship is morally wrong, don't do it, or find someone who feels otherwise. Just don't hurt someone because you can't keep your pants zipped.