A TikTok user, Brittanyy Bowen, who goes by @brittanyybowen, posted a video captioned "I'm sorry, but that (...) don't fly this way," with the text overlay "everybody cheating." In the video, she describes seeing two men in public settings who appeared to be cheating on their partners. The post sparked a debate about cheating and why some people are choosing to remain single.
The video had more than 481,000 likes and thousands of comments from people sharing their own experiences with cheating at the time of publication.
Bowen said she was at a Texas Rangers game when she saw a couple sitting in front of her. She could see the man's phone, and he was messaging another woman named Erica, who became suspicious enough to ask him whether he was with the woman sitting next to him. He replied, "No, why would I be with her?" even though he was sitting right next to her and they were sharing a basket of wings.
Bowen said the incident left her and a neighbor sitting nearby gobsmacked. She described a second incident at a Sonic drive-in, where she saw a man in a truck allegedly sending Snapchat messages to several girls while a girl sat in the passenger seat beside him. "I've had enough. I've seen enough," Bowen said, explaining why she felt disillusioned with dating.
Her final comment, "And then everyone has the audacity to ask me why I'm single. Everyone's getting cheated on," captured the video's central sentiment and struck a chord with viewers.
The comments section was full of personal stories about alleged cheating, with several people describing experiences that went beyond dating. One user who said they were a nurse described seeing a dad on Tinder next to his "FRESHLY postpartum wife" in a hospital room. Another user recounted a man asking her out despite being married, even though he had described his relationship status as "complicated."
Others discussed the role of social media and smartphones in modern relationships. Some described Snapchat as a definite red flag, while others said seemingly innocuous online interactions could cross a line in a relationship. "Infidelity has become so normalised it's awful. You can't trust anyone," one commenter wrote.
However, another commenter observed, "Not all men cheat, just sayin'." That prompted further discussion about whether Bowen's experiences and those shared by commenters were representative of relationships in general. Some said they would stop dating after being cheated on multiple times. Others said people should remain single rather than stay in relationships that made them unhappy.
The discussion also touched on the long-term effects of betrayal. One commenter said being cheated on can change how a person trusts, loves and sees themselves for the rest of their life.
