Liberal Talk Radio

Even in an article titled “Laptop Slides Into Bed in Love Triangle,” this seems rather like a stretch:

Most couples experts said the act of taking an electronic device to bed did not by itself threaten a marriage. “It depends on the relationship,” said Marcy Levine, a marriage and family therapist in San Francisco. “If the relationship is a solid one, where the partners are loving and connected, then bringing a laptop to bed is a way of continuing to be with their partner even if they need to do something else.”

When a couple lie in bed together, both focused on the computer, Ms. Levine said, they can be said to be engaging in an intimate act.

Such is the case with Teresa and David Sholes of Bennington, Vt., who have been married for 15 years.

Ms. Sholes, a medical equipment consultant in Bennington, savors the convenience and coziness of her bed, and her laptop is something of a fixture there, not just at bedtime.

“Sometimes in the winter, if I want to rest in the middle of the day, I’ll bring my laptop and my phone and cuddle into bed,” she said. “I can be anywhere and connected to anything. It feels very powerful.”

Ms. Sholes uses her laptop in bed for more than work. She searches for recipes, plans birthday parties for her 5-year-old daughter, balances her checkbook and listens to audio books.

She also lies in bed and exchanges instant messages with her husband, who is elsewhere in the house on his own computer. “We discuss things, you might even say argue,” she said. “The IM will often eliminate a lot of the tone, and we can discuss things a little bit better.”

But the Sholeses also use the computer in bed to watch movies and to look at photographs Ms. Sholes has taken. And they sit together and have instant messaging conversations with friends.

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.”

Dude, you’re IM’ing across the house. There’s something wrong with that. Something really wrong.