Dangers of Cybersex

[Guest Skeptic]

I wonder how many of us recognized ourselves in the fascinating article published yesterday in the New York Times ('Cybersex gives birth to a psychological disorder' by Jane E. Brody, NYTimes 16 May, 2000, in the Health & Fitness pages of the Science section). If you haven't read it already, I urge you to download it--and its companion piece ('First step is recognizing the signs of internet abuse')--from the Times's website archive. It's worth the minor cost of retrieving such material.

 

One paragraph began 'Cybersex compulsives can become so involved in their online activities that they. . .risk their jobs,' and went on to say that '(m)any companies now monitor employees' online activities, and repeated visits to sexually oriented sites have cost people their jobs.'

 

This made me immediately thoughtful of Hooboy's April 30 post about the reasons for Regina's sudden disappearance, citing (among other problems), an internet firewall at R's workplace.

 

At the time, I imagined that R's employer had merely got tough about use (abuse) of company time & internet facilities during the workday. But now, after two more weeks of queenly silence, I begin to suspect that the boss's computer was in fact Regina's ONLY access to the web, and that he didn't have one of his own at home. More sinister still is the possibility that he had actually been canned over the issue. (Let's face it: if all the many and highly extravagant postings R made to this forum were launched from his workplace, the boss, had he known, might well have wanted to do worse than fire him!)

 

As ditzy & over the top as Regina could be, I agree with those who miss his postings, and I hope the grim scenario suggested above proves unfounded. We have no lack of narcissists around here; but truly florid histrionics (and Regina was surely one such) are both rarer and more entertaining.

[Bilbo]

Yes, I would also love to have Regina back. Maybe somebody will turn her on to the computers at the library?

I myself have a straight brother in law (wonderful fellow but not the one I still have a small crush on) who only used the office computer for porn activities during his lunch hour and on coffee breaks. Still a female associate came into his office one day and saw something she felt she shouldn't. (Does noone knock anymore?) He almost got a nice judge who felt that this activity was no worse than having a Playgirl in his desk drawer, but pulled another one instead. So he had to leave his job with the government. However, research entomologists of his calibre are not so common and he had another job nearly as soon as he wanted one. And it was closer to where their children live.

[Guest red]

Skeptic, you are certainly worth the price of admission to this board. I don't know if cybersex is dangerous to me (I think I'm relatively restrained), but I am truly fascinated by your postings. Reading your almost absolutist pronouncements on life and sex(certainly not about love) is like reading a semi-raunchy novel from a few decades ago: Henry Miller and John Rechy come to mind. Have you thought about giving up your day job for the world of man-to-man literature? In any event, keep on posting. I await with pleasure---and some measure of trepidation---your next philippic.

[Guest Skeptic]

Thanks, Red--you're kind to encourage my blathering on. But the 'price of admission' bit is nervous-making. Hooboy wants nothing more than to keep this a FREE site--unless it's to cut me 'off at the balls,' as he delicately put it.

 

Why, if it weren't for his unswerving commitment to unfettered discourse here, you wouldn't even be reading this thank-you note!