Is being online 'chatting' whilst in a relationship cheating?

[Arria]

@ Ozme: Thanks for clarifying that... having had one of them (the non-sex related activity runaway), I can say being neglected for a non-sexual activity when the relationship is going through a hard time is probably even worse than for a sexual activity - because, if your partner acts dumb / does not admit it, there is no way you can make clear something is wrong and he is avoiding you.

It will get you a "you don´t want me to have harmless fun" accusation, which is - again - bullshit.
I would not oppose against my partner having harmless fun.
I would, and did, however, very, very strongly oppose to him spending the greatest part of his free time away from me, having an extremely good mood when heading out, while always being sulky, down, and non-communicating while being at home.

The fact that there is nothing sexual involved just makes you feel even more helpless and desperate and alone. Because - he is not doing anything WRONG, is he?

One of the reasons I hate the doing-behind-the-spouse´s-back-without-ever-having-asked-his-opinion attitude so much is that I have a very strong feeling that, once the issue is found out and in the open, the "acting" partner will say something along the lines of "I never took anything away from you - you never even noticed until you stumbled across the fact by accident", thus not even granting the spouse the right to feeling hurt and betrayed.

Because if they would NOT defend themselves along these lines, they would have to admit they did something wrong.
Cowardly people do things behind their spouse´s backs.
So I see very little chance that such a cowardly person will invite trouble by admitting to wrong-doing.

And this picture makes me sick to my stomach. I know what it feels like. And it´s bad enough when there is no sexual relation involved at all.