Laptop And The Bedroom

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And as the number of home wireless networks also grows, laptops — along with Treos, BlackBerries and other messaging devices — are migrating into the bedroom and onto the bed. The marital bed has survived his-and-her book lights and the sushi-laden bed tray. Can it also survive computers that tether their owners to the office or make the bed the workplace itself?

It is quitenatural, every new technology threatens the status quo. With wireless around, you cannot even drag someone from their laptops, the way one could do from a desktop or a T.V. As new research from Duke University points out, spending too much online can draw one away from the real world. Of course, it is helpful too, when one moves to a new place, one’s old circle of online friends can help one get through the initial days of loneliness. The problem is that making new friends requires not only an express intent but also effort and sometimes its just too tempting not to make that effort.

Anyway, couples present a more peculiar problem. By the very nature of their relationship, they require more intimacy and bedrooms for them(or so I have heard) is sacrosanct. With the increasing tendency to bring work home, and all pervasive technology, the intrusion is something which is unavoidable now. Especially if any of them are bloggers!

“I suppose I started the trend,’’ said Dr. Choi, a physician in Palo Alto, Calif. “But now my wife is just as much the nighty-night PowerBook key-banger, blogging away for her friends.”

This is perhaps the key point. If technology has to be there, it helps immensely if both partners use it. That makes sure no one is ignored and then then the laptop just becomes an extension of the bedroom.

And of course it has side benefits

In addition, the laptop has helped their sex life. “There have been a couple of times where we have digital pornography and can play it right there in bed,” Ms. Sholes said. “At this stage in our marriage I feel like we should bring our laptop into bed more often.”

Ultimately, like almost everything in a relationship it is about mutual understanding. Though, I do think, one day, we might realize that we have gone too far as technology goes and actually feel the need to scale back. No laptop signs just like you see no smoking signs or maybe technology free areas!

Personally, it is quite meaningless. I don’t have a girlfriend and more importantly, currently I don’t even have a bed!

heh.