has the home computer become a major threat to marriages?

Read about it in the Times of India reprint of this Sunday Times article.

My thoughts on this: yes and no. I think that excessive computer usage can sometimes damage strong marriages or push weak marriages over the edge. That's not a good thing, but it's possible that without the computer, the marriage would have lingered on for a few more years before ending for a different reason. Which is the better outcome?

If a marriage is going through a rough spot, and the couple would like to save it, spending lots of hours alone on the computer is never going to help.

On the other hand, it's possible that computer use, when it's done together and used to facilitate communication, could help a marriage. The couple that surfs together stays together?

Another factor could be that this technology is still new and our values, such as how we view fidelity, have not yet caught it up with it. Maybe it's only a matter of time before everybody will just know that of course, flirting with somebody else online is just as bad as flirting during a clandestine date. Or that emotional intimacy is a powerful thing - and it doesn't matter whether this occurs online and offline.