When an April Fool's prank played by a Japanese adult game developer went viral, it sparked widespread curiosity in a lot of people and was so popular various social media outlets carried the trend for a while.
What was the prank? Nothing more than a rumor claiming that TENGA had developed a complete-body sex suit. This suit was said to come with all the works: imitation boobs and VR goggles. Your playmate was an animated woman and the suit was created to respond to the affixed TENGA CUP and sensations.
The initiative was impressive. But TENGA making a suit like that is not likely to happen soon for several reasons. They are:
- TENGA's vision is not to replace sex but complement sex lives and improve masturbation.
- Technology is yet to make such advancements.
If you are an avid user of TENGA products, you are probably familiar with the non-anatomical design of all models as well as the flexibility of use that make TENGA products fun to play with.
While the sex industry is not where it could be due to the status quo of technology; while porn on its own gets a lot of bad publicity, the advances they've contributed to are undeniable. When you think about it, because the adult video industry embraced the early adoption of new technology, the internet grew in leaps and bounds. Today it is easy to use, allows for seamless online payments, and the videotape industry, and facilitated the integration of VHS over Betamax.
As of writing, the porn industry is exploring new fronts in virtual reality (VR). The implications of this for masturbation and sex, in general, are huge but is it going to be a blessing or the bane of mankind? In contemplating the prospect, concerns have arisen as to the safety of VR porn. Will we be having a better experience or heavy to our masturbation experience?
We're going somewhere with this. So, in 2016, TENGA published an annual ’Self-Pleasure Report’. This was a man adult survey that captured sex, masturbation habits, and usage of sex toys. This research allowed for the confirmation of several assumptions and the discovery of new findings.
A 2019 survey showed that over half of surveyed adults used masturbated using stimulation such as pictures or porn. Are we gearing up for an influence on porn viewers that we have never seen before following tech advancements? Will these innovations change our perception of reality? These questions remained unanswered because we are not in the future yet.
However, one incident has further accelerated our connectivity in this era: the coronavirus pandemic. While we were physically isolated from each other, social media made it possible for influencers to access us. This same period also saw a significant increase in some activities such as masturbation while some were curtailed.
What point are we driving home here? VR is here to stay. Hence the reason why top VR sites are for adult videos. Industries like the military, gaming, education, and corporate training are using virtual reality to boost effectiveness. And the adult video industry is catching up really quick. But are we exercising our freedom to pleasure ourselves in our own right or are our thoughts being influenced?
Let's try to answer that by outlining the dangers of VR porn.
First, all porno materials have been planned and created by someone else. So, viewers are simply taking someone else's fantasy and using it to satisfy theirs. You may enjoy it, but it can pose a hazard if you don't enjoy it but you have to watch it anyway. How? Well for starters, your behavior could be affected without you being aware of it.
Another danger is the possibility of producers incorporating paid advertising into movies, subtly prodding us to make purchases we may not want to; our minds get exhausted emotionally and mentally sometimes. The more we make decisions out of poor judgment, the more susceptible we are to the influence of other people.
Third on our list of adult entertainment hazards are the account hacks that take place whereby your account is infiltrated and your financial and personal information is stolen. There's the addiction that happens when you can't use VR porn to a healthy degree. The result is:
- Inability to have sex in real life
- Loss of social stimulation
- Inability to masturbate
At this point, your brain also thinks you are still in virtual reality. Hence, a weird feeling of being in motion even if you don't have the goggles on. Other physical symptoms are:
- Dizzyness
- Cybersickness
- Eyestrain
- Headaches
- Nausea
In some publications by Dr. Jonathan Seens in Nature, it's been said that VR supposedly shuts down some zones of the human hippocampus. This is the zone that helps us navigate in environments. His study discovered that in virtual reality, with adult entertainment, in particular, the brain triggers multiple neurons while releasing different hormones all at once.
What happens in your body when this takes place? For starters, your heart rate spikes, triggering a strong response from your entire body. Because pancake porn is worlds apart from immersive porn, the brain naturally expects actual sexual intercourse which in reality does not occur no matter how immersive the experience is.
This goes off to kickstart complex reactions in parts of our brains. In virtual reality porn, you are brought to the peak of excitement only for nothing to happen because it's not real sex. Consistent turn/turn offs what is hazardous to our health according to Dr. Seens.
If you've ever had a lamp that got bad with frequent switch on and switch offs over the years then you can understand this explanation. Like that lamp, your neurons could start electrocuting; killing your brain slowly. With VR adult entertainment still in development, we have yet to cement discussions. But this phase of the technology provides adequate time to make more findings.
Now that we've got all these established, what is the future of VR adult entertainment?
I'll start by saying it doesn't look bleak. Virtual reality is expanding in base and all gears are shifting in the direction of more applications of the metaverse in Web 3.0. Besides non-pornographic and pornographic playgrounds being developed by tons of companies, companies like Google, Apple, and Meta have been working distinctly with VR headset models that can be marketed.
A good number of these hardware prototypes while still in development will let you see out via googles but while doing so, they collect data on your facial expressions from sad to happy to pleasure and anger. You can be sure what this data is used for. Companies use them to ascertain your pleasure points and in doing so, influence experience.
With this in view, we are expecting to see avatars becoming more human-like and able to take on physical and facial features that mimic. your ideal partner. This technology will be so advanced that chances are you might even be able to select the body parts of your digital partner and Frankenstein them together as you wish.
There are concerns that this could distort individual perceptions of real humans in the real world. You know what I mean. Humans are great but come with their annoying traits, making an easy escape into a virtual reality where you have a picture-perfect partner a habit that could become overly excessive.
The coronavirus pandemic forced us to connect only through social media. Will the new option of virtual sex push to become recluses only interested in dealing with virtual people as opposed to actual humans?
The answer to that is NO. We humans can make choices and we can make the right ones with this power regardless of the option. If we could still work from home amidst a pandemic, then any social shift is possible.
So, is the VR wagon worth jumping on? The truth is that virtual reality is still in its infancy. The more it develops, the more we can have solid conversations on its use and how it can be leveraged to enhance our experience as humans.
This way, VR use will not become an uncontrollable addiction. Using porn to fantasize is pretty commonplace and as long no one including yourself is being hurt, it's perfectly okay. As long as a better perspective on how to enjoy VR without any side effects is discussed, and a few tweaks out in place VR adult entertainment is worth trying but then again, it's all up to you.
You still have the power here. That's why there's a control button to shut down your session and return to the real world. It doesn't matter how smart technology gets, our power to make decisions means we won't be spiraling out of control as soon as VR gains widespread use. The future of virtual reality is solid and very imminent. But till then it's best to wait and simply enjoy other forms of entertainment in achieving self-pleasure.