A viral video of a man that purports to show him doing the dirty on his wife at 30,000 feet has exposed a wild new “cheating” trend that experts warn is bad news.
The act of straying while in a committed relationship is nothing new — historians have actually dated the culture of infidelity back to when civilisation first began, but it continues to be a controversial topic.
But there’s a stark difference between cheating in 2024 and those who were playing away back in 3000 B.C: modern technology.
Data recently released in the UK shows the average person is filmed around 70 times a day on CCTV cameras installed at workplaces, shops and other public places.
Then there’s the fact that almost 90 per cent of Aussies walk around with smartphones in their pockets, which can be whipped out to record at just a moment’s notice.
It’s the latter which has spawned a new “cheating” trend sweeping TikTok, which sees social media users outing stranger’s whom they’ve seemingly caught in the act.
The most recent example involves an American man who was recorded while on a United Airlines flight from Houston to New York.
In the clip, filmed by another passenger, he can be seen animatedly chatting to the person in the seat beside him, unaware he’s being recorded for a video that was later shared to accuse him of adultery. The video went viral because the man was wearing a wedding ring.
“If this man is your husband… he’s probably going to be staying with Katy tonight,” it read.
“Him and Katy met at the airport bar and haven’t left each others side since then.
“He convinced her to change her seat so she could sit next to him and they could drink.”
The video continued by sharing several identifying details gleaned throughout the duration of the flight.
“I wouldn’t have known he was married if he hadn’t been wearing his wedding ring,” the accuser notes.
A second, very blurry clip, was later uploaded which claimed “the married man and Katy were making out and ended up in the bathroom”.
To date, the videos have been viewed almost 32 million times, with the comments section exploding as sleuths attempt to identify the man in a quest to expose his alleged infidelity to his wife — if indeed he has one.
The video is the latest in a long line of witch-hunt style clips that are almost guaranteed to clock up millions of views by those who post them.
But Melbourne psychologist Carly Dober has warned there’s an ethical cost to “doing the Lord’s work”, as one tabloid publication described it.
“Being exposed in such a public manner can leave the person who is betrayed feeling embarrassed and publicly humiliated,” she told news.com.au.
“Knowing your partner is not respecting you and their relationship can be awfully difficult to deal with, but even more so when everyone on the internet knows your business.
“It may also trigger controlling behaviours in which the betrayed partner will seek revenge or engage in abusive behaviours, as can the person whose actions have gone viral.
“You never know what kind of relationship people have, there is the assumption that these videos hold in which the people being filmed are in exclusively monogamous relationships and we just don’t know that for certain.
“We also don’t know the mental health and emotional resilience levels of the person who is filmed which could have dangerous consequences.”
Indeed, one British bride-to-be opened up about being on the receiving end of a self-appointed relationship vigilante, describing it as “humiliating”.
“If you’re marrying a builder called Adam from London on the 27th of August please message me, I know what happened on the stag do,” the video stated.
She was then faced with comments from the hundreds of thousands of people who’d viewed the clip, weighing in on what she should do with her relationship.
“Cancel the wedding,” one demanded.
“She’s dumb if she stays,” someone else declared.
Tales closer to home have also gone viral, with a Gold Coast woman hitting headlines last year after her public plea for a “blonde woman in her thirties” went viral, in which she claimed she saw her boyfriend “hooking up with the brunette girl” at a nightclub while she went to the bathroom.
Ms Dober, who works at Melbourne’s Enriching Lives Psychology clinic, described it as an “impossible situation”, and questioned whether airing the dirty laundry of strangers was actually the grand knight-in-shining armour moment many think it is.
“This trend is normalising filming strangers without their consent and while most people are trying to do the right thing, you might be missing vital information,” she said.
“These couples could absolutely be in open relationships or engaging in polyamory, in which this kind of behaviour is not actually outside the bounds of their relationship.
“In these circumstances, videos may ‘out’ the couple to their workplace colleagues, friends, family and community members who don’t know this.”
But the trend appears to show no signs of slowing down, a point Ms Dober attributes to human fascination.
“These videos bring a shock factor in which there is a real-life drama, real-life betrayal, and people are wanting to see how the story turns out,” she explained.
“Not only that, due to the themes within the videos – many people will have experienced something similar themselves.
“People also watch these videos in hopes that it is not them, their partner, or anyone they might know and care about who are exposed.”
Morals aside, one thing these viral videos show is that if you’re up to no good, there’s a high chance you’re going to get caught.