What can define cheating?

                In every relationships, cheating is a dreaded and bad thing. If one cheats in a relationship, all ties can be broken and it will be a very hard thing to fix, most of the times, it remains broken. Not only are the trusts shattered, but also the feelings themselves will be severed. But since there are different kinds of people out there, cheating in a sense can have different meaning for a person.

            Cheating cannot be diffined straightforwardly. But one of the best ways to diffine it was written by Steve Pavlina in his article Cheatingin Relationships      "Not everyone defines cheating the same way. Society may condition us to think of cheating a certain way, but deep down we may not feel the same." said Pavlina. She gave some things that the couple may want to talk to each other with in order to clearly define in what the term cheating may be applied in it. Things that are physically doing or just mentally thinking may want to be considered. Like if they consider cuddling with others cheating, or if they think of anyone else as they masturbate. Will these occurrences be considered cheating? the couple should discuss it so as to not have any misunderstandings.

                On the other hand, kanisemeekstdiva compared the versions of a man in cheating to that of a woman in her article entitled What IsConsidered Cheating men and women point of view. In her article, while men mostly say it is cheating only when any physical contact was made, women also considers that even without the physical touch, as long as another is inside your mind, it is considered cheating.

                "In my opinion I think some men don’t consider some actions to be classified as cheating until their women does it then its not considered cool anymore." kanisemeekstivida said. Which can really be true since most men just think of the now in the relationship instead of the when and if. They will only realize that they also think almost the same way as the women only when they themselves see it done by their partner.

                Now, with these contradictions, is cheating really just in a physical sense or also mentally as well. What if the one you're are thinking of doesn't even really exist. That the one you think of it about is just a character inside a game. Will it still be considered cheating? Does thinking about a non-existing person be cheating really? Or is it only limited to those that really walk the earth? Have any couples considered this? Especially when we are in a time of technology in which you can even date a non-existing person in the screen. Is playing dating sims be considered cheating too? I guess it really should just be left up to the couple themselves.