The Impact of Online Technologies on the Practices and Experiences of Love and Sexuality - Term Paper Example

THE IMPACT OF ONLINE TECHNOLOGIES ON THE PRACTICES AND EXPERIENCES OF LOVE AND SEXUALITY By Institution Date of submission Instructor THE IMPACT OF ONLINE TECHNOLOGIES ON THE PRACTICES AND EXPERIENCES OF LOVE AND SEXUALITY It goes without saying that the progression in technology such and, in particular, the internet has had insightful impacts on different aspects of humanity. These effects include the changing nature of the family unit, sexuality as well as love. These impacts have been in such a way that online technologies affect how people experience the aspects of humanity. In the current world context, people struggle with their self-identity in search for meaning in negotiating the interpersonal demands of everyday life. Some of these struggles can be ascribed to the effects of online technologies that have changed the way people experience and practice the different aspects of love and sexuality. In one way or another, almost each individual has experienced these impacts when using online technologies. This paper discusses the impact of online technologies and experiences of love and sexuality. One of the main impacts of online technologies on the experience of love and sexuality is that people have established and maintained interpersonal relationships. Barraket and Henry- Waring (2008, p.149) define this aspect as online dating; they define online dating as a way of meeting new people through internet sites that are designed for dating. Online dating has changed the entire experience of how different people experience love. Sites like engage.com, friendstar.com as well as Eharmony.com have mediated interactions of people around the world. These sites invite people and encourage them to find their ‘matches’ online and experience love in a new way. People take up online dating to deal with the barrier of distance; one can date someone online before they can decide to meet formally and take the relationship further. How it is that someone can experience a feeling of love for another person that they have never met? Well, this is made achievable by the use of online technologies such as video chatting on social networking platforms. Moreover, online dating transforms the entire experience of people who use the technologies. Through the use of these technologies, people have formed livelong relationships, and this can be attributed the transformative possibilities provided by online technologies (Barraket and Henry- Waring 2008). Human beings are social species and have flourished through social organization, cooperation, and communication. The attachment of human beings to their significant other depends on their emotional distance. When people are in love, they need a comfortable distance to experience a safe connection. For others, the significant other must be at hand for them to experience the feeling of love. However, this experience has been changed by online technologies if whereby people can use these technologies to feel closer to their loved one. Additionally, the attachment-seeking behaviors become complex and symbolic for some with the use of online technologies. For example, partners may b Skyping each day because they do not live together but if one day they do not communicate one partner may get worried and question the relationship (Cundy, 2014). Online technologies have also eased the way people find love; some people have tried to find love in real life settings with no success. With increasing frustrations, these people decide to find love online by using technologies at their disposal. It is now familiar to hear people say “my spouse and I met on the internet’’ noting that their dating and falling in love was facilitated by the use of online technologies. Online dating is something that people shied away from but currently, more people see online dating as a viable option when it comes to experience love. Although people can lie about their personal details on the personal profiles that they create in online platforms, this is rare for those who want to find and experience love (Krotoski, 2011). Online technologies have also brought about several types intimate activities. These activities include online relationships that are intended to find an offline sexual or romantic partner. Moreover, there is also the superficial cyber flirting and cybersex and profound online-only romantic relationships. The benefits of using the internet as an efficient tool for finding an offline partner are evident in the light of the large and accessible, relevant information found in the internet. Online technologies have now become a beneficial tool for people to establish romantic bonds. People use the online technologies to experience love in a different way by undertaking the intimate activities above. For example, due to failing offline relationships, one can decide to start online dating. Although it may take time for them to meet someone who matches their profile, they finally succeed and can organize on face-to-face dates and establish if they can move forward with the relationship. It is interesting to note that it is easier to have an offline affair or an online affair, but it is more challenges to maintain the advantages of both (Ben-zeev, 2012). The other aspect of humanity that that online technology has had an impact on is sexuality. Sexuality in this context can be defined as the ability of one to develop sexual feelings for another person or one’s sexual orientation. The impact of online technologies on sexuality can be looked at by looked at by examining various aspect on online sexuality. These aspects include pornography, sex contacts and education, sex work, sexual subcultures as well as sex shops. The impacts of online technologies on sexuality depend on the age and gender of users. Moreover, the increasing access to the online technologies means that people have found it easier to access material online. One of the populations that have been highly affected by pornography is adolescents. The sexuality of this group has been affected in terms sexual attitudes, beliefs, sexual aggression as well as behavior. Online technologies enable the adolescent’s access sexually explicit material even though their parents put in place controls to ensure that this does not happen. Such material affects the adolescent’s attitude and beliefs about sexuality and some that that have been instilled in them by the family unit. Some of the sexual behaviors that are depicted by the adolescents can be attributed to the sexual content that they access online; they may want to experiment what they saw online, and this may affect their sexual behavior (Owens, Behun, Manning and Reid, 2012). The evolution of electronic media technologies has also fueled concerns over the impact of exposure to sexual content. Arousal theories such as excitation-transfer theory explore the potential of media sex and violence elicits arousal in viewers. The theory argues that because of the addictive nature of excitation responses, arousal elicited by sexual and violent media portrayals can elevate the excitatory reactions. Viewers can become more aggressive than they would have been if they had not watched sexual or violent materials (Ciment, 2015). Such sexual aggressive behavior can be attributed to the access of sexual material that has been made possible by the use of online technologies. A sex shop can be defined as a premise that sells a significant number of sex-related items such as vibrators, lingerie as well as sex toys among other sex material. Some of these shops are located in the outskirts of towns and cities to ensure that only adults have access to them. However, with the advancement in technology, it is now common to see sex shops on the internet, and more people have access to the sex-related material sold in the shops. Online technologies have opened up possibilities for consumers of sex products. All one has to do is to make their order online and they do not have to get worried about walking into a sex shop. Moreover, there has been a significant number of sex shops in recent times, and this can be attributed to the increasing consumer trend of purchasing sex-related items online. The impact of this on the sexuality of people is that they have discovered new ways of experiencing their various aspects of sexuality thanks to the possibilities of online technologies (Evans and Riley, 2014). Furthermore, online technologies have enabled people to discover their sexuality in more abstract ways. Each person has the role of finding out what their sexuality is and embraces it entirely. One of the scholars who delved into the subject of sexuality, is Foucault who in his work “The History of Sexuality” notes “each person has the duty to who he is that is, to try to know what is happening inside him, to acknowledge faults, to recognize temptations and to locate desire’’ (p.92). Part of this finding oneself is discovering what one’s sexuality is. Sexuality in this context involves a process of endless monitoring, classification, recording, and regulation. After such process, one can question their views about sexuality or share them with others through the use of online technologies (Elliot, 2013). The LGBT community especially those in their youthful years experience bullying as well as harassment from people that have not accepted them. This bullying comes in terms of the use of online platforms where people hide behind their screens and use their keyboards to bully and harass the LGBT community. Nevertheless, online technologies have enabled the LGBT community deal with such behaviors as they have come together and formed online platforms that they use to support each other. The technologies have also enabled the transgender people to establish that there are other people around the world just like them. Online technologies have various impacts on the experiences of love and sexuality as seen in this paper. The technologies have affected aspects of love such as dating, finding and falling in love as well as marriage. The impacts of the online technologies have been positive and negative, but the positive effects outweigh the negative effects. In terms of sexuality, online technology has impacted on this subject in terms of access to pornography, sex education, sex attitudes, and behaviors as well as aggressiveness and the LGBT community. It is, therefore, the role of the regulating authorities to determine the negative effects that the online technologies have on the experiences of love and sexuality and work on ways of eliminating them. BIBLIOGRAPHY Barraket, J & Henry-Waring, M 2008, 'Getting it on (line): Sociological perspectives on e-dating', Journal of Sociology, vol. 44, no. 2, pp. 149-165. Ben-Zeʼev, A 2012, Love online, 12th ed, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Ciment, J 2015, Social issues in America, Rutledge, London. Cundy, L 2014, Love in the age of the internet, Karnac Books, London. Elliott, A 2013, Concepts of the self, POlity, Cambridge. Evans, A & Riley, S 2014, Technologies of sexiness, Oxford University Press, Oxford. Krotoski, A 2011, 'What effect has the internet had on finding love?’ the Guardian, viewed 27 October, 2015, . Owens, E, Behun, R, Manning, J & Reid, R 2012, 'The Impact of Internet Pornography on Adolescents: A Review of the Research', Sexual Addiction & Compulsivity, vol. 19, no. 1-2, pp. 99-122. Read More