Sex online: Too much information?

The web is an amazing tool for learning and discovery, and its given people a private place to explore embarrassing medical or sexual questions. But bear with me for a moment in the idea that perhaps a person can get TOO MUCH information, they can delve deeper than they mean to, and that the anonymity encourages them to act in impulsive ways. It's similar to the problem of people self diagnosing and treating medical concerns online...even though you are researching you are not an expert, your information can be bad or misinformed and you may be reading something inappropriate for your situation.

I started pondering when I stumbled across this article that discusses the phenomenon of husbands discovering their homosexuality online, and hiding it from their wives. Internet sexual content seems to generally be associated with men so I was wondering how this is affecting women, surprisingly nearly three quarters of men and women have had sex with someone they met online. The web is also such an open door for infidelity, the casual encounters section of Craigslist is one of the sites most popular areas. I worry that the internet increases people's isolation and can encourage deviant behavior..just because bondage may pop up in the search hits for "sex", or trannies may pop up in the search hit for "gay" doesn't necessarily mean that the two terms should be connected for the person searching.

Other links I read for this post:

• The Internet and Human Sexuality, Klixx Magazine
  
• How technology has impacted the development of gay males, U. of Massachusetts thesis paper
  
• The Relationship of Cyber-sex and Relationship Infidelity, Self Help Magazine
  

Technorati Tag: sex internet