A relationship that can only be sustained by camouflaging problems and indulging in passionate pleasures is headed for disaster. A major reason people go online is to find intimacy. Dr. David Greenfield discovered in a recent survey of over 18,000 people. It depends on your definition of intimacy.
Some people simply define intimacy as sex.
By that definition, there's plenty of intimacy online, including thousands of Web sites filled with sexual images and stories as well as scores of high-tech virtual sex services. Not at all. Some people think intimacy can be found, however, in the hundreds of sexually-oriented newsgroups and chat rooms. At least in those areas real people interact with each other and often trade communication that is not blatantly sexual. Indeed, faceless communication on the Internet does allow individuals to bypass a lot of shyness and awkwardness.