Newspaper Article

ON LINE AND OUT OF LINE CYBERSPACE ROMANTICS EASILY LOSE INHIBITIONS

By SUSAN CAMPBELL, Special from The Hartford Courant

1996

Overview

Could happen. And it's happening with greater frequency. Didn't Rush Limbaugh meet his third wife over the computer? Doesn't America Online have The Flirts Nook, Romance Connection, and Meeting Place chat rooms, public forums dedicated to sometimes outrageous feather-preening? At any given time, these chat rooms are full. Although it's still new and there's little solid evidence, there are some rumblings that cyberspace can be - for some people - the next marital Waterloo. For example, John Wiedenheft of Associated Counseling Professionals in Wethersfield and Granby, Conn., says clients came to him because the wife met someone on the Internet, moved out, and flew to New York for a rendezvous. She found her dream lover was married, with a history of mental illness. Plus, he'd met two other women through his computer. The Connecticut couple went to Wiedenheft and are working to salvage their marriage. \"People can toy with all kinds of behavior they don't normally do in front of others,\" [Sharyn Wolf] says, such as mentioning their sexual prowess or body parts that normally wouldn't be discussed until well into a courtship. This kind of banter, needless to say, is not acceptable flirting behavior. She's writing a book and plans to include a chapter on cyber-flirting to give some guidance.

• Publisher: Gannett Media Corp
• Subject: Watt, James (1736-1819) / Wiedenheft, John / Wolf, Sharyn