Usually this communication takes place through an online service such as America Online or CompuServe. Women in a chat room are often surprised at what develops in a fairly short period of time. At first the conversation is stimulating, though flirtatious. Quickly, however, women are often confronted with increasingly sexual questions and comments. Even if the comments don t turn personal, women find themselves quickly sharing intimate information about themselves and their relationships that they would never share with someone in person.
Online affairs differ from physical world affairs in some ways, but are similar in others.
Cyberaffairs are based upon written communication where a person may feel more free to express herself anonymously than in person. Frequently the communication becomes sexually graphic and kinky in ways that probably would not occur if a real person were hearing these comments and could act on them. Participants in an online affair will often tell their life stories and their innermost secrets. They will also create a new persona, become sexually adventurous, and pretend to be different than they really are. Pretending is a major theme in cyberaffairs.