A cheating spouse can be the biggest heartbreak you experience in life, as well as the reason for the destruction of your home. In this digital age we live in, you may notice unusual online habits of your partner.
They may be using social media to communicate with a lover…or not. If you suspect a cheating spouse, you don’t want to jump to conclusions.
You want to observe and be sure before you make a very serious accusation. If you want to find out for sure, there are certain things to look out for. Here are ten online habits that may reveal a cheating spouse.
10 Online Habits of a Cheating Spouse
Here are ten typical online habits that reveal you could be dealing with a cheating spouse.
1. Labeling Themselves as Single on Social Platforms
Most social media accounts allow users to display their marital status. You can usually let people know if you are “married,” “in a relationship,” or “single.” If “married” or “in a relationship,” the user can tag their significant other. This status lets the whole world know that you are together.
Look at the “relationship status” of your spouse. If it says “single” or “it’s complicated,” that could be a very bad sign. It shows that they don’t want other people to know they are committed to someone else. They may want to hide their relationship status, so other potential lovers won’t know.
It’s an especially bad sign if you send them a relationship status request, and they ignore it. They likely saw the request. Why won’t they just accept it?
2. Ignoring Your Tags and Comments
As a spouse, you probably have a lot to say about the things your significant other posts. That’s natural! You may comment on their posts and tag them in different posts yourself. When you do this, you expect them to respond to you most of the time.
If your partner ignores everything you write on their wall, it can make you feel like they don’t want to publicly interact with you. This pattern could mean they don’t want someone else to see those interactions.
A cheating spouse may claim they see you all of the time at home, so they don’t see the need to interact online as well. However, if they talk to everyone else who posts on their social media pages, that excuse could be less than comforting. Your spouse may also avoid talking about you online. If you went to the zoo during the day, they might omit that when talking to other people.
However, they may mention other things they did throughout the day. Or, if you both painted a room together, they may post about painting the room but not include you in the post.
3. Being Overly Flirty Online with Other People
You can see the different things that your spouse and friends post on each other’s walls. You may notice that your spouse seems to be especially flirty with certain people they talk to online.
They may call them terms of endearment like “babe” or use heart emojis in their communications for everyone to see. A cheating spouse may make it seem like it’s all in good fun.
However, it shows a certain level of disrespect for your relationship, whether they are cheating with other people or not. Your spouse should make a point not to get too friendly with online acquaintances.
4. Being Overly Protective of Phone/Laptop
Does your spouse turn away any time they grab their phone to prevent you from looking at what they’re doing? Do they laugh at their phone but then not show you what was so funny? Do they go through extreme measures to keep their phone and social media accounts secure and locked? Are they doing the same thing with their laptop?
There is no reason for them to scream at you if you try to use their laptop to check your email if your phone is dead. This overreaction is an indication they are hiding something. Granted, some people truly value their privacy.
However, there is a difference between keeping things private and being sneaky. A person who values privacy probably did this all along. On the other hand, if this reaction is a new behavior, it can indicate a cheating spouse.
5. Secret Social Media Accounts/Emails
One of the most obvious signs of a problem is if your significant other has secret social media accounts or email addresses. They may have one account that they use for their regular life and others to help them live a secret life.
Some of the accounts may utilize a different name and no picture to help them stay anonymous. They probably think you don’t know about the other accounts. You may discover the accounts if they have multiple accounts to log in and out of on Gmail or Facebook on their phone or laptop.
You likely don’t have access to any of these secret accounts, and they may even get defensive about them if you point them out.
6. Accounts on Dating Sites
Did you happen to notice an app like Tinder or OkCupid on your spouse’s account? Even if they used it to meet you, there is no need for them to still have that app on their phone.
It’s an obvious sign of an affair if they’ve been using the app recently. They may try to tell you it’s not a big deal to have dating apps on their phone, but you aren’t overly jealous. Your spouse having dating apps is a completely legitimate thing to be mad about. They need to be deleted immediately.
Even worse, some spouses may sign up for notoriously dubious websites that pair up married people. Even curiosity about these sites should not be tolerated.
7. Behaving Single Online
People portray themselves in a particular way online. Some people portray themselves as a family person with plenty of pictures and posts about family (including their spouse). This married life is how your spouse should portray themselves.
They may choose to go another route, though, and post pictures of scantily clothed girls and offensive memes that make them look single. Also, they may post more pictures of them out with friends at the club than pictures with you. They may do this to convince people online that they are, in fact, single.
This behavior could attract the wrong kind of attention from people online. If nothing else, it portrays them as someone who wants to be single.
8. Constantly Communicating With People Online
Many spouses cheating online will be glued to their phones. They will always be talking to people online on social media. This chatting could be all through the day as well as at odd times throughout the night.
Of course, they won’t allow you to look at anything they are doing. it’s normal for people to text and message people, but a cheating spouse will allow it to interfere with private time with you and take it to an uncomfortable level.
9. Correspondence With People You Don’t Know
As a spouse, you should know a majority of the people your spouse communicates with. When you look online, do you see them talking to people you’ve never heard of before? Or an ex? Do you see them in pictures with people you don’t know?
There may be a reason your spouse is trying to keep these lives separate. One of the first things that comes to mind is they are having an affair and don’t want you to know. These people may be people they are cheating with or just people who know the person they are cheating with.
10. Lying
Cheaters will often find themselves in positions that force them to lie. They may lie about who they are talking to or where they are going at night to avoid suspicion. They may also blatantly lie about their own life to other people online.
Do you notice them lying about what they did with their day online? All of these lies point to the fact that they might be keeping things from you. A cheating spouse may also lie about things that don’t even matter. It’s a sign of someone who shouldn’t be trusted.
If they lie about small things that don’t matter, it’s probably easy for them to lie about serious things, too.
Final Thoughts on Detecting the Online Habits of a Cheating Spouse
If you notice more than just a couple of these online habits, you could have a cheating spouse. There are multiple ways to cheat. It could be someone your partner leans on for emotional support behind your back but has never met in person. It may also be someone with whom your partner has a physical relationship.
Finally, it could be that your partner hasn’t found someone yet but is looking. No matter what the situation, you should not have to put up with being second place in your relationship. You deserve someone who is proud of you and the life you are building together as a couple.
If you aren’t feeling appreciated, it may be time to have a serious conversation. If things don’t change, you may be the one changing your relationship status to “single.”
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