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"Sex has remained generally unchanged since cavemen were humping in, well, caves. (They apparently enjoyed it.) Up until about 20 years ago, sexual encounters were generally between two (or more) people in a private setting. Then the internet came, and the floodgates opened. With the wide availability of advice, diagrams, cell phones and instant messenger programs, our ideas about sex have become more fluid than ever. We no longer need to suppress our passions, fetishes or dirty thoughts; we now have plenty of outlets to nurture and share them with others."

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Tom Rhodes:
in 1998, concluding that "greater use of the internet was associated with declines in participants' communication with family members in the household, declines in the size of their social circle, and increases in their depression and loneliness."

However, a Carnegie Mellon meta-analysis of these kinds of studies from 1995 to 2003 "suggest[ed] that more internet use leads to a slight increase in interactions with friends." The researchers explain this by saying that "the internet might reduce the costs and increase the convenience of communicating with friends, and in doing so, make other types of social interaction, such as phone calls or spontaneous outings, more likely."

Well at least we know the second quote is accurate. I don't know about any of you guys, but I use facebook to plan nearly every event now. And I see far more people showing up to these events with all of their prior knowledge of it stemming from facebook aswell.

I'll set up plans with people over text or msn far before I'll call them about it. Really the only people that I ever call to make plans for are the ones I know rarely use facebook or instant messengers anymore.

So from personal experience of my own and my friends I'd have to say up with the internet for social interaction. Although I will admit I use the internet to ignore the hell out of my family issues :P

The title tricked me :(

Broken promises of Hot Man Love aside, I thoroughly enjoyed the article.

I hope my parents aren't going to see my history with a title like that : ) Just joking, it's a very interesting article.

I think the internet can increase or decrease social interaction depending on how you use it, like with anything else. You can make alot of friends on the internet, often from other cultures. And I always send emails to my friends, and organize things through email. And you can research things on the internet etc etc. It's pretty useful thing if you use it right. I personally wouldn't even consider nude pictures and that. It's like when people put personal info on myspace and wonder why they are being stalked!

Excellent Article. I'm glad I live in Canada instead of the US, sex isn't considered bad here, gay marraige and abortion are legal and proper sex education is required in schooland overall I'm damn proud of my country for it.

That was indeed a very well written article. I was lured in by the promise of Hot Man Love, but... I should have known better. Didn't stop me from going, "oh hot damn, where is the Escapist going with THIS now?"

Regardless: The internet has absolutely helped me deal with my bisexuality in ways that I can't even begin to express a gratitude for. Without finding and learning about and meeting people of similar states of confusion regarding what is right, I would almost certainly have ended up repressed, confused and scared of this part of me.

Very deep article and it does bring up some very good points.

I've allways felt the world as a whole kinda needs to catch up and accept things like homosexuality, bi-sexuality and certain fetishes (not that fucked up stuff like beastiality, necrophelia, pedophelia etc) but, that would be one-step closer to perfection to me.

Everywhere needs to be like Canada or my country (England) and allow gay relationships, then the world would be a happier, closer place full of sunshine and lolipops.

And where is my hot man love!? >:/

Great article Tom!

More pictures of hot athlete girls, pls!

That being said, awesome article. I love seeing these kinds of different, thought-provoking articles on this site - it keeps my brain active!

Thanks everyone, glad you liked it.

And Nerdfury, I'd like to think I always have different, thought-provoking articles on the site. ;-)

I was scared, but this wasn't labeled NSFW, so I came in. Interesting read.

It's interesting how different countries have such opposite ideas about the same issues.

In America, violence is pretty much a-okay; you see it in just about every form of media, and it's really not seen as a huge deal. Sex, however, is still very taboo and the type of subject to cause many nervous exchanging of glances.

In Germany, on the other hand, almost the exact opposite is true. Sex is not taboo at all, while people's views on violence in media are much stricter and as a result much less violent content is available.

Then, of course, you've got Japan, where sex and violence is both seen as pretty normal (just look at any adult-oriented anime).

In my opinion, Germany's got the right idea. I've never really figured out why sex is such a hush-hush topic in the States; pretty much everyone knows about sex or has experienced it, and it is a natural and necessary part of human nature. Why the taboo?

I can understand violence; violence is BAD. Always. There is no instance where violence can be declared completely good. Sex, on the other hand, can be bad (or at least a lot of trouble) in certain circumstances. But it isn't generally considered "bad" by most sane people.

So why is sex more of an issue than violence? Maybe we use violence more often, so we have to justify it?

I dunno whether I'd agree with the statements about sex before the Internet - y'know, you had a lot of promiscurity promoted in the music industry in the 60s and 70s, which was then thrown out of the window when AIDS hit. But acts like Bowie and The Beatles were always rumoured to be having orgies (an example being John Lennon's rumoured sex with his manager).

Very interesting issue, though!

@zoozilla:

I think perhaps, in America at least, that comes from our puritan heritage and our largely Christian population, which tends to poo-poo sex more than violence.

Meanwhile, most of the European countries lost a lot of their faith after WWII, which affected those populations across the pond much, much more than the US. This is speculation, but I believe that WWII not only secularized their populations, but also led to violence being much more taboo than sex. Although this seems to be less and less so these days, what with the many generations between the end of the war and present day. I predict that when the current gen becomes the arbiters of tastes and assign ratings to things, that it will be more permissive in regard to violence over there.

Over here? I dunno, hard to predict. We're becoming more sexually aware, but in a sort of muddled way. Kids are growing up not afraid of sex, but being very conservative about things surrounding it. Like thinking intercourse is bad, but anal/oral sex is a'okay (because that still counts as not having sex, you see?). This also leads to confused feelings about condoms, which can only be bad.

But rounding back to the topic, I don't agree with the rating systems being not only mandatory in many countries, but also allowing for censorship. I think that, unless something happened in the film that caused harm to someone (like child pornography) that freedom of speech should cover everything. I know there's nothing as broad like the 1st amendment in Britain (or, to borrow another rating system's oligarchical status, Australia), but I'm a big fan of it, and wouldn't want it to change.

I've typed enough though. Go play, children.

Tom_Rhodes:
There's already a great number of people who say the internet is undermining meaningful social interactions - everyone and no one is a "friend." One of the first studies on the impact of the internet on interpersonal relationships was in 1998, concluding that "greater use of the internet was associated with declines in participants' communication with family members in the household, declines in the size of their social circle, and increases in their depression and loneliness."

I remember pundits saying this line of argument over and over. Anyways, that first study had many methodological flaws, for example the average decline in the size of a social circle is by one person which isn't very big at all. The same author(s) later did another similar study which found the opposite results. Plus, it was 1998, a lot of has changed in ten years and with the internet shaped by society as a social medium, I'd say whatever the benefits or consequences of the internet is pretty much the same on what you want or who you socialize with in real life.

I don't mean to poo poo your article, but I believe that only about two or three Islamic countries actively practice Sharia laws and they definately are in the minority.

Certainly one of the more... interesting articles out there. And definitely a good read.

PedroSteckecilo:
Excellent Article. I'm glad I live in Canada instead of the US, sex isn't considered bad here, gay marraige and abortion are legal and proper sex education is required in schooland overall I'm damn proud of my country for it.

Happens for the most part in Australia, too... in some places. Though I must say, our acceptance of gay couples is not quite so far along.

Though I could do without the evangelists writing into the newspapers every so often screaming how all of society's problems are due to homosexuals being allowed to live and whatnot. <.< If violence wasn't so frowned upon I'd strike the fear of God into THEM.