With the chaos brought by the pandemic early this year, people were forced to restrict themselves in numerous activities involving social connections and physical gatherings. Health protocols included social distancing and limiting one’s self from going to public places, unless necessary. Because of this, many people have not been able to go out and meet with their loved ones, but the digital platform has made communicating with them still possible.
As physical connection and touch are no longer advisable for as long as there’s no vaccine for COVID-19 yet, people’s desire to make new relationships with others ignited. Dating apps experienced a surge in newcomers and activity today than in the pre-COVID era. During the onset of the pandemic, Tinder and other prominent dating apps experienced an increase of 10% to 15% in messages sent. Basically, the numbers tell everything.
Along with the spike of online dating app usage, another aspect that people crave during self-isolation is pleasure and intimacy which is on a decrease today. In this article, you’re going to learn how adults explore their sexuality during these trying times.
Sex and Physical Intimacy During The COVID-19
The COVID-19 has put romantic relationships in two positions without anything in between: either couples are living and staying together since the lockdown or they are sadly separated by it. Whether it’s the former or the latter, the pandemic has truly affected couples in one way or another, involving sex and intimacy as well.
This prolonged event had pros and cons. In one survey, it has been found out that adult couples had a significant decrease in the quality of their sex lives when the pandemic started. However, the interesting part is that some individuals were able to explore more about themselves as they engage in cybersex, discover a new sexual position, and turn into pornography. Although many people had lost their sexual edge, some were able to spice up their stay at home.
Porn Industry And The Rise of VR Porn
While several industries suffered because of COVID-19 and have witnessed a decline in their sales and activity, the porn industry is progressing. Since people are stuck in their homes and are living in isolation, one of their top activities included watching pornographic videos. Starting from March this year, PornHub detected that the user traffic in their website grew enormously by 13.7% then 18.5%, as people found creative ways to pass their time.
For porn industries to continue creating their content, they had to improvise and adapt to technological trends, especially virtual reality (VR) porn. VR porn was actually practiced long before in 2016, but this pandemic situation shed more light on more VR porn consumption and experiences, particularly VR for women.
VR Porn, Erotic Tech, and Everything In Between
The porn industry has had a fair share of its revolutionary technologies which helped them to become more resilient during dire times for businesses. Virtual reality porn is only one of the industry’s connected, immersive, and interactive sex experiences. The porn industry also boasts the following “sex technologies” during COVID-19, and even way before, such as teledildonics, online erotic games, erotic chatbots, and the like.
Among these sex techs, women’s favorite has to be VR porn with 22% of audiences being women. Conventionally, the porn industry used to neglect what women wanted, but futuristic settings like VR porn transformed porn content into a more women-friendly one. With this, VR porn creators are seeing a huge potential to have more women viewers.
Additionally, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Gone are the days that women were ignored by porn despite their contributions to the industry. Today, younger females are more open and encouraged to talk about their sexual desires and fantasies without feeling insecure. Their demand for porn entertainment and innovation has increased as well.
One of the potential pitfalls of VR porn is physical touch and intimacy, but it actually is the other way around. Virtual reality porn gives people the opportunity to travel to a different part of the world other than the four walls of their homes.
Women, in particular, will love VR porn as it offers a sense of intimacy and engagement. Instead of watching regular, two-dimensional porn, you’ll feel that you’re involved in a certain act because of the three-dimensional and immersive features of VR porn.
Redefining VR Porn For The Women Population
Across the globe, there are currently more than 500,000 VR erotic films enjoyed daily by 171 million users. Point-of-view (POV) settings are the most popular type of VR porn as it allows users to feel that they’re more than the audience, but a participant.
Also, VR porn received excellent feedback because of the smiles and pleasure that the audience can feel while participating. On another end, erotic VR films with rougher and darker scenes received low ratings. Unlike traditional porn, VR for women has changed because it didn’t feature faceless women anymore.
Bottom Line
While VR porn existed and expanded long ago, the circumstances put people to explore alternative ways to have fun with virtual reality porn. In light of this, both porn creators and enthusiasts are looking forward to a VR porn world that highlights the craving for a more respectful and intimate environment than what people were used to because of traditional porn.