Micro-cheating, in its most basic form, is cheating without physically crossing the line. It’s sort of like when you like someone for the first time; you buy them a small gift, slide into their DMs, touch them a lot, hold their hand when you’re a little tipsy or just give them a hug for no damn apparent reason.

With every ounce of affection, you’re giving someone all the emotional and physical signs you like them, without actually telling them you like them. It’s the new basic bitch buzzword for infidelity, in other words.

These small opportunities you purposely create for affectionate behaviours that fall outside your relationship to create a bond are what relationship experts refer to as ‘micro-cheating’.

Signs of micro-cheating:

Liking old social media posts

Did you really need to like that post from 2014? No, of course you didn’t.

Your dating profile is still live

We’ll just wait for the next Taylor Swift album, shall we? This is not OK, and if you think it is, you need to talk to someone, and now.

Constantly visiting their social page

Whether it’s an ex or not, clicking on their handle just to see their sweet face counts as micro-cheating.

Lying about your relationship status on Social Media 

Do we really need to answer this one? #Cheater.

Contacting an ex and hiding it

Being friends with an old flame is one thing, but actually going to see them without telling your partner opens up a whole new can of worms. Lesson? Be mindful the next time you send that text. It could be the very thing that actually ends up destroying your relationship.