Some of you out there in Cyber World may have a burning question or two about the effect of viewing erotic images and videos online, visiting websites devoted to dating or sexual hookups, or messaging online in an erotic, titillating way with some secret, cyber sex partner. The questions that a number of people seem to have (if I can take a little literary license here) are: Does the internet lead to the horrific, debilitating downfall of many a good woman and man, as well as the devastating ruination of untold numbers of relationships? Or, is Cyber World the great exotic, enchanting hideaway e-resort or lavish luxury virtual cruise where individuals can mingle and cavort electronically, allowing them to meet the men or women of their dreams and live a life of fulfillment and delight that they wouldn’t be able to live without the internet?
Of course, these two questions are phrased in an exaggerated, hyperbolic way, like you might find in some over-the-top sensational popular magazine. Yet, I have heard some individuals refer to the viewing of erotica online and cruising the internet as absolutely and necessarily corrupting and dangerous. Like many extremist viewpoints on various issues, this doomsday perspective is not universally supported by empirical evidence. Nonetheless, even some scientific researchers focus exclusively on the adverse effects of sexually oriented online behaviors, or cybersex.
An article recently published in the Journal of Sex Research by Julie M. Albright provides new information regarding the cybersex patterns of a large group of Americans. It does not address the long-term effects of such experience, but few, if any, studies do. Professor Albright, a sociologist at the University of Southern California, analyzed data obtained by Elle Magazine and MSNBC.com in their Cybersex Survey available at the MSNBC.com website in 2004. Respondents to the survey were recruited by announcements in the Elle Magazine, on Elle.com, and on MSNBC.com. The way that the survey was conducted has both disadvantages and advantages. The downside is that people who participated were those who heard about the study and volunteered on their own; consequently, they selected themselves, rather than being randomly selected by a scientist so that we can have greater confidence that the group is an accurate reflection of the population of people who use the internet for sexual reasons. A tremendous strength of the study is that 15,246 people responded to the survey. However, 75% were men, and we have no way of knowing if that is an accurate proportion for this population.
One important issue that was addressed in this analysis was whether individuals who use the internet for sexual reasons are prone to be compulsive in their sex-seeking behaviors, one of the suspected outcomes of cybersex. Professor Albright found that only 2% of respondents spent more than 11 hours per week in internet sex-seeking behaviors, the amount identified by a previous researcher as excessive. Women were as likely as men to be in this group. The low rate means that it is unlikely that sexually oriented cyber behavior automatically leads to compulsive behavior; in fact, this outcome is very unlikely. Single individuals and gay, lesbian, or bisexual individuals were more likely to spend this extreme number of hours on cybersex compared to married and heterosexual individuals (although, again, the proportions were very small).
In fact, certain proportions of individuals indicate that they experience positive outcomes from their online experiences, although women and men appear to get somewhat different types of benefits. Women reported greater levels of chatting online about sex, possibly creating more of a “relational context,” as Albright calls it, to their internet experiences. In keeping with the relationship focus, women indicated to a slightly greater extent than men that they were more open to trying new situations and behavior as a result of viewing erotica (26% of women, 24% of men), and that it was easier to talk about what they want sexually as a result of their online experience (26% of women, 23% of men). They also were slightly more likely to employ the strategy of viewing erotic images and videos with their partner as a way to heighten sexual arousal for them (19% of women, 16% of men).
Men, in contrast, indicated to a greater extent that they viewed erotic images and videos online (75% did so) than did women (41%). Men were only very slightly more likely to view the erotica alone to increase their own sexual arousal, 16% of men compared to 14% of women. This type of viewing may have involved masturbation.
Participants in the survey also reported on whether they had experienced several negative outcomes. Smaller proportions of individuals indicated that they had experienced negative outcomes than indicated that they had experienced positive outcomes. The greatest proportion was 15% of women reporting that they had felt pressure to engage in sexual behaviors they had seen online; only 2% of men reported feeling this pressure. Slightly more women (12%) indicated that their viewing of erotica had resulted in them engaging in sex with their partner less often compared to men (9%). Although relatively rare overall, somewhat greater proportions of women (9%) felt that their partner was more critical of them as a result of viewing erotica than were men (2%). In contrast, greater proportions of men (9%) reported that they themselves were more critical of their partner as a result of erotica compared to women (2%). Again, the negative effect on views of one’s partner was relatively infrequent.
More will be said in the next blog entry about actually seeking out sexual partners online to meet in person. However, the results of this survey suggest that, with respect to viewing erotic images and videos, larger proportions of both women and men report positive outcomes than negative ones. A compulsive pattern of online sexually oriented behavior is indeed extremely rare.
Albright, J. M. (2008). Sex in America online: An exploration of sex, marital status, and sexual identity in Internet sex seeking and its impacts. Journal of Sex Research, 45, 175-186.
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22 comments:
This study is interesting, but as you suggested it had some problems. Obviously the sampling issue is significant. I don’t really think of Elle magazine and MSNBC.com as organizations that would place enough emphasis on objectivity and the scientific method in conducting their surveys. The people responding are not only those who were interested in participating in the survey knowing ahead of time what it was about, but also they must have been people who are familiar with the magazine or who frequent the MSNBC website, which further waters down the sample. Of course, it would be difficult to put together a more scientific study of that size, so I can see why this one is useful.
Another thing I would be interested in knowing more about is how the questions were presented, and who came up with them. Who decided that using the internet for sexual reasons is only excessive if done more that 11 hours per week? Did the survey questions suggest this to the participants? Statements like that could influence how the participant would answer other questions, perhaps by attaching or removing certain stigmas (“Well, I thought that just 7 hours per week was excessive, but now I guess I’m normal after all…maybe this doesn’t affect my relationship as much as I’d thought, then…”)
I would have to agree that the problems with the sample being voluntary and non random is an issue, it limits the amount of inference that can be made and the significance of the data becomes questionable. Additionally the fact that 75% of the respondents were male constrains the conclusions that can be made about women in comparison.
Having said that, I think the article provides food for thought about balancing research on erotica online. I think research that focuses on only advantages and only disadvantages is somewhat useless and I liked that this survey attempted to look at both sides of the coin.
Considering the fact that the internet is so accessible it is surprising to me that only 2% of the results indicated compulsive use with regard to erotica online. This statistic could be influenced by the fact that the survey was voluntary, perhaps compulsive users were unwilling to give up their time to take the survey.
I have to be sceptical that there are more positives than negatives associated with viewing erotica online. I would suspect that erotica preference is a more individual likeness, some people would be deterred by it and others encouraged. Perhaps the finding that there are more positives than negatives again aids itself to the voluntary aspects of the research; maybe people who chose to respond were passionate and had some level of tolerance towards the issue.
Although the questionable sample leads me to take the findings very lightly, I can benefit from the research questions which surfaced… I would love to experience the conclusions drawn from a less biased source to see just how positive and negative the experience of erotica online actually is. Given that erotic websites rank amongst the highest visited websites online, a plethora of research questions are waiting to be asked.
A final issue that surfaced for me when reading this blog was the question of definition. It seems to me there is such a range of explanations for aspects of human sexual behavior. What exactly constitutes sex in the cyber world? What particular types of images or media are people specifically being exposed to and how does the degree of sexual explicitness, affect their stance on its usefulness (or uselessness)? How does one define erotica, what are the boundaries between erotica and pornography?
This study poses some interesting problems and points. It did talk about both the advantages and disadvantages of erotica. I was kind of surprised to see that gay, lesbian, and bisexuals were more likely so spend 11 or more hours on cybersex then heterosexual. I could understand singles, in general, spending more extreme amount of time then a married individual. Of course, there is problems with the study. The participants weren't randomly selected, and because they were done through a magazine and the website of a news group. The people that look at these mediums already limits the participants. Also add the fact that participants choose to complete makes me wonder if they were more comfortable talking about erotica.
Aside from the problems reported with this study in regards to finding and selecting the participants, I have mixed feelings on this study. While I honestly haven't looked at online erotica, I have to wonder whether the content that the participants viewed could be classified as being erotica or as pornography (as was previously described in class as depicting more coersive and foreful acts). I would think that the type of erotica/pornography that the individual is viewing would also be indicative of negative behaviors that they would be engaging in. I would think that if you were able to get information from the partners of non-single participants in the study that they would be able to provide ample informant data as to whether there were any perceived negative effects from their partner looking at such content.
My personal opinions aside, I can understand how viewing such content would have both positive and negative effects, but think that there really needs to be more research conducted in order to further examine what viewing cyber-erotica does to someone and their partner. Again, as was stated in several other comments, I agree that the sample pool does need to be more random.
This study points out a few good points about viewing erotica and the effects. The people that participated in this study are more likely to have a strong opinion in this subject so there is some bias, but they do have strong points that I have personally experienced. One point that I found interesting is that women were more likely to use the chat rooms as chat and in a relationship way where men wanted to imagine new situations. I think is a fairly good example of showing the differences of men and women’s behavior. Men want to act out or imagine, in my previous Psychology class we compared boys and girls in their differences. Found that boys like to see the end result, for example that is why you see boys playing with trucks and watching them crash into each other. This is obviously different scenario, but to compare that men, wanted to view or think about the erotica. One fact that I found interesting is that women felt more self conscious in the sense that they thought men were more critical of them after watching erotica. I have found this to be true. Looking at magazines they always have beautiful women on there and make them appear to look flawless. When someone sees beautiful women on a variety of magazines, they may be more likely to look at their significant and see their flaws.
While I am of the opinion that there is nothing wrong with viewing online erotica, I have experienced some negative outcomes from doing so. One of my ex-girlfriends equated viewing erotica with infidelity. She threatened to break up with me over it. I learned about encrypted files. Does this make me an addict? I don't think so. If it happens that one partner is "in the mood" and the other is not, then I imagine that it is better for the frustrated one to take care of him/herself rather than seeking out actual sex from other partners, and if he or she decides to liven things up with some erotica, then more power to him/her (unless, of course, this dissatisfaction is ongoing and/or in conjunction with other relationship problems; in this case, one might do well to find a new and/or more sexually compatible partner). However, I have also experienced some positive outcomes from viewing erotica. I have tried a few things I might not have tried otherwise, picked up a few "tricks," if you will, that have been found to be mutually enjoyable. With regard to the 15% of women who said that they felt pressured to try the sexual behaviors that their partner viewed online, this could again be signs of sexual incompatibility (depending on the deviance of the sexual behaviors in question, of course). To be certain, one should not pressure their partner for sex of any variety, but if one partner is into experimentation and the other is more "vanilla," then in my opinion, that relationship is headed for trouble. Sexual satisfaction is an important part of a healthy relationship, and if one partner is perpetually dissatisfied, then it is likely that he or she will find satisfaction elsewhere.
I noted, as many other posters did, that there is an inherent flaw with the methodology of participant selection. Only individuals that read ELLE or surf MSNBC.com was polled and all the participants’ volunteered. I would be interested to see the study repeated with a comparison between Fox news views and MSNBC viewers because the later in considered conservative and primarily republican and the later is more liberal and democratic. That being said the results are none the less fascinating. I noted a correlation between the number of participants that wanted to try new behaviors and those willing to talk more freely about sexual behavior. The percentages were nearly identical. I attribute this to a linked interest of the pursuit of the new sexual activity. You have to talk about it to try it. I do agree with a previous poster that compatibility of sexual behaviors and desires should be considered in mate selection. Some individuals do view cyber sex as cheating while on the other extreme some see it as a way to take care of themselves in a non-cheating way. Is cyber sex the downfall of mankind? Probably not single handedly but interestingly I heard once that sexual deviance was the beginning of the fall of the Roman Empire.
While the study produced a variety of results, I do not think that many of them can be used to judge what actually happens. The group was not a random selection first and foremost. The people that had agreed to the survey all shared similar interests in the fact that they found it through Elle magazine or MSNBC. Also, the men outnumbered the women three to one. This factor in the difference in sex could also lead to some skewed results. Those that participated in the study may be more inclined to talk about the viewing of erotica, because they chose to take the survey instead of being chosen.
Some of the things that seemed interesting, but when I thought about it not out of the ordinary, were the fact that gay and lesbian people spent more time on these sites. I knew that singles would be more excessive users, but I did not think about the fact that these two groups would view more than heterosexuals.
Another thing that was interesting to me was that women became more willing to talk about what they wanted sexually and were more open about their feelings because they viewed erotica. It is almost as if they realized that many people take part in many different things when it comes to sexuality and they may not be so bashful in discussing their own wants and needs with their own partner.
After reviewing the result from study that was conducted by Professor Albright the methodology used to obtain the results does not seem to support the empirical methodology. As mentioned the participant were selected from two main sources, which might be a limitation to the population. In the last decade there has been an increase on men and women that are using the Internet for "cybering" (cyber sex). Cyber sex is defined as the consensual sexual discussion on-line for the purpose of achieving arousal or an orgasm. As some participant said that they benefit from the result of viewing erotica on internet while others said completely the opposite. Some had reported negative outcomes from their experience. In regards the individuals who had negative experiences and felt pressured to engage in sexual behavior as seen online, I think that a major influential fact is on how each individual perceives the information obtained from their experience. As found in Bandura’s experiment of stimulus respond “monkey see monkey do” the outcome depends on how each individual perceives the information obtained. Although spending eleven hours “cybering” I think is quite excessive time. People involved in cyber sex universally minimize the importance and impact of their behavior. They say "It’s was just on-line" or "It’s not real sex." In reality in a relationship everything boils down in to the couple’s comfortably of viewing erotica online, but again anything that is excessive tend to overrides its boundaries.
Putting the limitations of the study aside, the data that was generated it interesting. The relatively low adverse effects stemming from electronic erotica does not surprise me.
What was interesting was that when I was reading the entry I began to think that the problems that were coming up might not have been the cause of Cyber Sex. I wonder if it is just cyber sex acting like a catalyst for bringing up issues like being more critical. I guess what I am saying is that i have a feeling that the relationship end of sex life is the real problem. If the relationship isn't gong very well and there is trouble the bedroom, it isn't likely that viewing erotica is going to make things better. I also can't imagine that in a good relationship viewing porn is going to suddenly create a lot of negative effects. I think the data reflect the state of our relationships and not the state of sex in cyber world.
Within the opening paragraph of this article, it states there are extreme views related to the topic of sex in cyber world. One view stating cyber world is a great sexual getaway and the other stating sex in cyber world is extremely corrupting. As with everything in this world, there are different opinions and surely extreme views. Within the study by Julie M. Albright, it did not seem like individuals held such extreme views. Overall, I find it interesting that participants of the study were recruited online through either the Elle website or MSNBC website. As stated a major disadvantage of the study was that the individuals were not randomly selected. Furthermore, in order to represent the entire population would it be helpful if participants were recruited outside of an internet survey? Also, on a side note, how was it decided that more than eleven hours per week spent in internet sex-seeking behaviors is considered to be excessive? Nevertheless, the results of the study were interesting. One of the most interesting findings was that single, gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals spent more extreme amounts of time on cybersex when compared to married and heterosexual individuals. I wonder how much this is influenced by societal norms and expectations. A second interesting finding was that there were more positive outcomes reported than negative outcomes. Obviously given our technological society, more studies that include aspects of sexuality and cyber world need to be conducted to further our knowledge about this topic.
This study seemed quite interesting to me, but also seemed flawed. The sampling of the information is the most significant. Since it was voluntary and not random, the accuracy could be highly skewed. Also I wouldn't necessarily consider Elle magazine or MSNBC.com very credible when it comes to scientific methodology, especially Elle magazine in that matter. The avid readers of Elle and MSNBC.com were most likely the ones taking this survey, which also could be inhibiting to the study.
Looking at the study itself, my largest concern is that the volunteers knew the basis of the study instead of having a blind study. This could highly alter the results because of embarrassment or certain expectations that the individual may have put into their head. For example the result that only 2% of the results indicated compulsive use with regard to erotica online could show us that people were too embarrassed to answer honestly. Another issue shown was that only 25% of the respondents were female. I think it would have been more accurate if more women had responded.
Although I am not entirely sold on the results of this study because of the skewed methodology, it is still a helpful study when speaking about online erotica. It does provide helpful information in the sense that not a lot of information seems to exist about the subject. I would be interested to see a repeat study completed with larger sampling and presenting it in the form of a blind study with more questions. I believe that this is great subject of research that should be examined more thouroughly.
It does seem that this report may not be as scientific as one would want however as it has been said, it does possess great numbers so it has to shed at least some light on the subject that it is covering. With that said one looks into what the study may be actually saying about the subject matter, is sex content on the internet a mostly good or mostly bad thing.
Going into some of my personal experiences. My father used to tell me that things such as porn and erotica are extremely evil things that the devil uses to tempt people away from what is good. All that porn does is rot the brain and cause, as stated in the article, good people to be bad. Personally I never gave much thought to what my father told me, he normally goes way over the top with his ideas. However I knew that there is always a chance that someone could sit down and have say a sex addict problem and the confronted with the infinite supply of porn that the computer could give them, they do nothing, but view it. In this way a good person could rot their life away.
On that last note I did watch a true life program on the television. While it may not be the best source of information, it did show that some people can watch porn too much. A guy on the show constantly viewed porn to such and extent that it interfered with his life. For instance instead of going to a job interview, he watched some porn on television. This is just one example that in fact porn on the internet can be a bad thing.
Can it be a bad is not the question here though. This is why it is so interesting. Throughout life I have been told one view point on a subject, but what is the real answer. With that said the question is overall is it a bad thing or good thing. I find it not so surprising that most people get positive things from it, but the extent that people do have positive experiences does shock me.
Going into this just a bit more in depth, a few ideas come to mind as to why. As explored in the religion part of the textbook, the United States is dominated by a sexually restrictive religion. This means that most people are not comfortable expressing themselves sexually. This does not mean that these same people do not have the desire to express themselves sexually. With the internet a person can do whatever they want and, if they choose to do so, no one has to know. They can look up and view and chat about everything they have always wanted to. Do stuff they would never do to a “real” person. Since it is based on real people or talking to real people, but it is some how disconnected from them as if they were not real people. This act of expressing themselves can be a freeing experience. A freeing experience can be a positive outcome of using the internet for sexual things.
There were a couple things in this article I found very interesting. From what I understand in this article, women view erotica less but are more willing to incorporate it into sexual relationships. Also, the majority of both males and females tend to see viewing erotica as a positive experience.
Not that I necessarily have an opinion either way on viewing erotica, I feel like this study may be extremely biased. By using participants who read Elle magazine and watch MSNBC, not only are you significantly decreasing the pool of people who are responding (as mentioned in the article) but the people themselves opted into responding. Therefore, wouldn't it make sense that the people who would be more motivated to respond would be those who are actively online and most likely enjoy it, therefore having positive feelings toward it? To me, it seems as though a person who was on there and viewed the experience negatively is less likely to get on and enter a poll unless it was a severely negative experience.
When people are given the option to comment on something they enjoy, or to stick up for an activity they like that is commonly misconceived, they are very likely to get online and take the poll. Not to mention the likelihood of them already being online in their personal chat rooms (this makes responding to the poll even less of an inconvenience)!
I have read Cosmo, people, etc. and I when I come across polls I just answer them in my head. I'm not sure if this means I'm lazy or just not too concerned on the matter, but I do not know many people who just respond to a poll that is seemingly neutral. Granted, there were a large number of participants- but if most are biased we clearly aren't getting the other side of it.
Also, I was interested that men viewed erotica more. I am not saying this isn't true, but the results obtained through self-report may not be completely accurate due to the fact that women are typically a little more reserved in admitting to viewing erotica if they feel they may be judged on it. If I watched erotica and felt maybe it was excessive, I am almost positive I would indicate a lesser amount.
I am glad that the credibility was mentioned in this blog as a disclaimer! It definitely needed to be there! It's very interesting to really look into a study and examine the scientific aspects as opposed to just taking all of the information in and believing it. I would love to see research on the long term effects of erotica as I found it intriguing that there isn't much out there!
This is an interesting study and I think something that is becoming more and more of an issue in today's world. Or maybe it's just that I'm older and are more aware of it then I used to be. It definitely would have been better if the sampling would have been a random survey but the amount of people who responded is a very large number which is good. I think that the amount of hours which this survey considers excessive is a bit high. Eleven hours a week would mean that on multiple days of the week these people watch more than an hour of internet porn which to me is crazy. I do not participate in this kind of thing so maybe it's just that I don't know about it which is why I think that number is way too high. I know that a lot of men look at internet porn and masturbate to it but I don't understand it. I also don't understand how they could watch that much of it. I was glad to hear that the number of married people watching these videos was lower then the other groups. I think that the only time you should watch this kind of thing if you're married is if you are doing it with your husband/wife to try and spice things up or try new things.
This study seems a little vague, and doesn’t have the variety I think it should have. The fact that the study is 75% of men answering throws my perception of the results off a little. Yea, the study shows that the positive outcomes out-weighs the negative outcomes of cyber sexual situations, but I can’t help but think that the results of the study may have been different had there been 50% men and 50% women. Women and men think very differently about sex. Women, I think, have a more personal outlook on sexual situations than men. This study seems like the results weren’t regulated much in this specific detail. Another issue I have with this study is the fact that they were all volunteers. This makes me think that since they were so willing to volunteer, it seems like there wouldn’t be any bad feelings toward the subject. If the study had selected random people, there may have been a chance for more negative feedback. Although I do not believe cyber sexual situations to be corrupting, this study seems like it could have gone a different way as far as the result is concerned if a few things were handled differently.
First of all, it is interesting that only 2% of individuals spent more than 11 hours per week seeking out internet sex. The way that it is presented, I had come to believe that a lot of people actively sought out internet sex often. It is also interesting that single, gay, and lesbian individuals were more likely to seek out internet sex, as it is a simpler and more private matter than doing so in public. Another thing that I found interesting was that women seem to be more open to erotica and new experiences. Again, it seems as though popular opinion would lean towards men being more oriented towards this sort of behavior. Despite this, though, men seem to view erotica online more often, which seems to indicate that although women are more open to it, they are really only interested as a means to more sexual enjoyment as a couple.
Another thing that I found interesting was that women feel more pressured by pornography than do men. I think that maybe because a lot of pornographic content may contain men subduing women in certain ways, but also perhaps because men are somewhat more desensitized to it. Finally, the fact that men are more likely to be more critical of their partner as a result of viewing erotica is interesting because it indicates that some men take erotica more seriously than others in regards to how it relates to themselves.
This is an extremely fascinating study. A lot of individuals do participate in cyber sex. There were problems with the study. The one main problem was that individuals picked themselves to be in the study. In a scientific study participants would have been randomly selected to be in the study. Also there were no control group in this study. How are scientists suppose the compare the experimental group (the group that did engage in cyber sex) and the control group (the group that did not engage in cyber sex). A second issue is that 75% percent of participants were males compared to females. Did they ask about there age, ethnicity, sexual orientation to see if have any effect on the results. The article did mention that: single and LGB participants did spend the most amount of time engaging in cyber sex around 11 hours. How did MSNBC.com and Elle magazine come up with these numbers. How accurate are these numbers is another issue i would think needs to be address.
It seems that after reading about this study that some of its flaws are very apparent; however, it’s an interesting topic. I find it humorous that to gain participants for this study information and the surveys were only given out online, where most all cyber sex and viewing online erotica occurs, not very representative of the entire population. I think that it is interesting that that the majority of participants were men, about 75%, since it usually stereotyped that men engage more in watching erotica online than women do. Can conclusions be drawn that more men feel alright or willing to participate in an online survey about cyber sex and viewing erotica because they do participate in the activities; or is it just that women were not as like to participate in the survey because they don’t partake in the so call activities? Another area that the study didn’t really look at was age of the participants, which to me may have made a difference in the analysis of the data. For example, the article states that participating over 11 hours of internet sex-seeking behaviors per week is excessive. Well this may be the case for a person in their 20’s with a job, is going to school and possible has a family; but what if the results showed that the majority of people who stated that they engaged in over 11 hours per week were over that age of 65, retired, and just lived with a significant other or alone. Would researchers still consider that to be an excessive amount of time? I guess that’s just something to think about.
I would like to overlook the previously stated problems with this study and to assume that the results possess validity for the sake of discussion. The issue of reporter bias is confounded by the notion that we are seeking honest answers; I would suggest that those who choose to respond to such surveys do so in a frank manner and are not influenced by perceived social constraints. With a sample size of over 15,000 replies, the results should normalize. The fact that 75% of respondents were male does not surprise me. From my experience, viewing and discussion of erotica has become more socially acceptable for men than for women. One only needs to go to a bookstand, whether conventional or “adult”, to witness the same proportion of erotic materials that are geared towards men as opposed to women. Whether this is due to a true difference in the sexual nature of men and women or a result of social constraints would be difficult to deduce. I would like to see a breakdown of the proportion of male and female replies obtained from Elle Magazine as compared to the MSNBC site.
An interesting result of this study was the higher proportion of female who felt pressure to engage in activities they had seen online. It is not exactly clear whether this is a self perceived and implemented pressure, or whether it is increased pressure leveraged by their mate. A self perceived pressure may be a sign of a healthy sexual relation in which a one wishes to increase the mutual fulfillment of both oneself and one’s mate, while pressure levied by one’s mate may be a sign of an abusive relationship. The higher proportion of gay, lesbian and bisexuals that reported a higher volume of time logged may also be a result of the nature of social pressure. Although mitigated over the last two decades, there still exists some social constraints against open homosexuality. Those that have overcome this barrier and freely admit their sexuality may also be more likely to freely admit their hours of surfing for erotica. I would suggest that the disproportion between homosexuals and heterosexuals may be due to inaccurate reporting of heterosexuals that more strongly feel the pressures of social constraints.
As a married individual I find these statistics disturbing. I cannot believe the number of married people who have said they have participated in cyber sex and looking at personal ads on the internet. I am not a prude and I see nothing wrong with enjoying a sexual relationship with another person. However, if you are married you have made a commitment to your spouse and even though you might think it is harmless, it is cheating if not physically than definitely emotionally. I am sure that there are some relationships that began online that have proven to be fulfilling committed relationships and if both individuals are single or divorced I see nothing wrong with it, however, if you are married you have absolutely no business being on the computer developing relationships sexual or otherwise with another person.
There were many things that I found wrong with the study. For starters I personally would not consider it scientific enough of a study. They advertised and got their participants on a voluntary basis from Elle and MSNBC. These two places would not present a wide enough variety of participants and the fact that they were volunteers makes the variety even less. To get a better variety the researchers should have expanded the advertisements to other sites.
A second issue that I had with the article is that they state that spending 11 hours a week engaging in these activities makes it excessive. One question that has been raised in other comments that I also agree with is where did this 11 hours come from? Who decided that 11 hours was the magic number to make this excessive. Personally, I think 11 hours is way excessive. It averages out to 1.57 hours per day. In 1.57 hours I can think of many that I can get done and how much time people waste on potentially ruining their own relationships.
I did like that the article concluded that women feel that they can be more open about things online. This is true and it makes sense when you think about it because when your online no one can see your face or hear your voice, they just read what you type and your not getting judged for it. Although I like this conclusion I am unsure how accurate it is because only 25% of the participants in the survey were women.
I can also agree with a potential negative listed of having one’s partner be more judgmental or harsh on you because of something they had seen online. It can also lead to pressure to do things that you would not normally do or you’re not comfortable with.
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