2.5 Internet infidelity
This next section focusses on a particular type of infidelity – that which occurs online or is mediated through social media or other digital technologies. This is an emerging topic for research that can be understood potentially as an example of the broader impact of digital technologies on all of us.
Consider these newspaper and magazine headlines:
- Adulterous WhatsApp messages cited in nearly half of Italian divorces [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)]
- Facebook cited in a THIRD of all divorce cases
- Divorce Lawyer: Facebook Is a Cheating Machine
These headlines suggest that our use of social media and other digital technologies are intertwined with our relationship behaviours; in all three cases the headlines allude to the fact that divorce lawyers increasingly examine social networking sites for evidence of infidelity and the third article also argues that social media use increases the likelihood of relationship breakdown.
But what exactly is ‘internet infidelity’? Do the following activity to see what counts as crossing the line for you online.
Activity 2.5 Online Activity and Behaviour Checklist
How likely do you think you would be to define these online behaviours as infidelity?
[Response key = 5-point Likert Scale for each activity in the list where 1 = ‘Definitely not infidelity’ and 5 = ‘Definitely infidelity’]
How do you score compared with our sample (N=160)? Note that if you score differently this does not mean your views are wrong – the numbers you are seeing are the average response for our sample and there was a range of responses across the sample as the standard deviation (SD) indicates.
Discussion
When you look at the results of a questionnaire remember that you must think about its validity and reliability. The Online Activity and Behaviour Checklist (OABCL) was developed by us and while it builds on prior research – especially the list of nominations of ‘unfaithful’ online behaviours by participants in Henline et al.’s (2007) study – it is not yet validated in another study and we have not statistically investigated the factor structure of the questionnaire (this is a statistical method to examine if a questionnaire is working as expected). The un-tried nature of our survey necessarily qualifies what we (or anyone else) can take from the results. Also – and this is important – in our study the average responses above come from a sample where everyone reported personal experience of infidelity. How do you think that this might influence the results?
It is important to note the potential limitations to your/our data but it is also worth thinking about the extent to which the findings echo the earlier discussion about definitions of infidelity – for example sexual behaviours with someone else online is highly likely to be defined as infidelity by this sample but looking at pornography is not. Broadly speaking, they seem less distressed by potential emotional infidelity behaviours – though this is not the case across the board.
2.4 Infidelity as secrecy and betrayal