Tuesday, February 9, 2010

When Your Hormones Tell You to Cheat

Cheating is scandalous, something that is gossiped about behind closed doors, something that causes pitiful glances at the cheated on, and disapproving glares at the cheater. While it is in no way condoned by the majority of our society, the problem of infidelity is something that runs rampant through many doomed relationships. When I think of cheating, I rarely associate it with teenagers: it seems that we hormonal kids almost never stick with a relationship once the excitement fades, so a wandering eye is something that simply doesn’t have time to happen. However, from recently observing a friends’ “open relationship”, I’ve realized that cheating IS something that affects more than adults dealing with their mid-life crises.

Studies show that teenagers are more fragile than any other age group, in a lot of ways: we need more sleep; our desire to fit in is at a peak; and we’re just starting to become conscious of our physical insecurities. So how are these immature, irrational, irresponsible people supposed to hold onto a relationship? I believe that attraction is often mistaken for love: lust runs through teens’ thoughts many times during an average day. But lust and desire does not necessarily translate into a healthy relationship. I think that those of us who enter into a relationship with someone we simply lust after can be tempted into cheating with someone they also lust after. This is one of the reasons I think that teenagers cheat: because our hormones convince us that our actions, whether they be becoming official with a crush, or betraying the trust of that crush, are the right thing to do because we are doing what our hearts tell us.



I would love to draft an experiment where we analyze all failed relationships in our school. More often than not, the reason for the breakup would probably be because of insecurities of one of those involved (this could cause clinginess or “stalking”), or because one of these teenagers strayed, flirted, or attempted to cheat. My main point is that with all our emotions and uncertainties about the future, can we teenagers really handle a relationship? Should we change our Facebook’s relationship status and try and turn a blind eye to that hottie in the corner, or should we agree to non-commitment, since straying is as easy as clicking on that status, and changing it from “In a Relationship” to “Single”?

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