What has happened to our love lives? Motherly advice on dating, classic fiction novels that pass on words of wisdom, and all previous dating experience up until 2015 hardly seem relevant anymore. Love has been bitten by the technology parasite. The emergence of technology in the world of love and sex has evolved our behaviour, habits, expectations and tastes.
Are these changes necessarily bad? Are we becoming conditioned to new processes that will change our human interactions in a negative, irreversible way? Or are these new platforms, smart phones and vibrators just tools that can lead us to a healthier way to deal with our love problems?
The commodification of sex has always been a reality, as we can see from the booming lingerie and prostitution industries. Leave it to 2015 to make that reality virtual too.
Let’s talk about sex in 2015, baby. Let’s talk about porn, online dating and non-monogamy.
Virtual Reality Porn
“Virtual Reality” or “VR” porn is now being developed in Los Angeles. This process works somewhat like scanning the bodies of porn stars and simulating different sexual situations, which can then be relived by whoever is interacting on the other side of the computer. It could be considered interactive porn, or rather, having sex with a computer. In the picture below, consumers wear an Oculus Rift “head mounted display” to get in on the action.
Teledildonics
If you want to go further than the visual, why not check out “teledildonics”? Emerging from places like Amsterdam, companies like Kiiroo (1) are developing new kinds of fleshlights and dildos that go beyond solo-sex. These babies allow your long-distance lover to control the sensations you feel, via bluetooth.
Sex: wild passion or utilitarian function?
Are these developments shocking? Disgusting? Progressive? Is society removing one of the most intimate and authentic experiences in life? VR porn and Bluetooth-simulated fleshlights are making sex utilitarian, rendering it down to our human nature. But we are so far from our “human nature” in 2015.
Our culture has shaped sex as this crazy, amazing experience shared between individuals. So are we saying that we don’t value that experience anymore? That getting laid by a computer is a completely satisfactory cure for a dry spell?
People who are excited about the emergence of VR porn believe that it won’t drive us apart – they say that it will bring us together. There is the belief that VR or teledildonics could help save long-distance relationships. It could also be a healthy alternative for people living with STIs, and be safer than using prostitutes.
The reality of VR
Whether VR porn will bring people together or drive them apart is completely subjective. We should not forget the effects of porn and solo-sex toys. Since their origin, they have been accused of having adverse effects on society, such as creating porn addictions.
We need to challenge the way we consume images and how they produce artificial notions of attraction and change our relationships. We cannot become so consumed with the tool that we lose touch of its original intention.
If you want to learn more about the “digital love industry”, watch this Vice documentary.
Sources:
1) Kiiroo: https://kiiroo.com/
2) Vice Doc: http://www.vice.com/en_ca/video/love-industries-digital-sex-669
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