Thursday, Nov 8, 2007, Eric Reuters published a piece called "Study finds sex, gambling not major Second Life" on the SL Reuters News Center that tells us not as many people are interested in cybersex as we all thought:
If there’s no “goal” to Second Life, no monsters to kill or experience points to collect, why do so many people log on and spend so much time there? Everyone has their theories, but a new academic study suggests cybersex and gambling are less of a lure than is often assumed. Noble Pierre-Etienne (Second Life: Wolkam Winger) and Angelica Ortiz (Second Life: Angelyka Klata) surveyed 657 residents about their Second Life usage. Only 13.6 percent said they “often” or “always” practice cybersex, and 2.2 percent patronized casinos regularly. The data was collected shortly before the gambling ban, Pierre-Etienne told Reuters.
“It’s not a perfectly representative sample, but that’s not the goal,” Pierre-Etienne said. He advertised the study through various blogs like Wagner James Au’s New World Notes. “You’ll find more Swedish people in our study because it was discussed on Swedish blogs.”
Pierre-Etienne is submitting the data as part of his thesis at the Toulouse Business School on the marketing potential of virtual worlds. His partner Ortiz, a native of Mexico, is examining the same data from a psychological perspective for the Swedish National Institute of Public Health.
“The data shows the most engaging activities in Second Life are shopping and socializing,” Ortiz said. There’s a direct correlation between overall usage and participation in cybersex, with the more committed users more likely to digitally consummate. “I think people want to try everything,” she said.
Regina Lynn, who writes about Second Life relationships for her “Sex Drive” column at Wired.com, isn’t surprised. “I think romance is much bigger than cybersex in Second Life,” Lynn said. “Just like there is more flirtation and come-hither and ooh-la-la in a bar than actual going home with someone to have sex.”
I see a couple of things here that these intrepid researchers may have missed. For one thing, if their demographic is skewed to Scandinavian countries (like Sweden) maybe we ought to pay attention to the fact that there are fewer hangups about sex in RL in those places. Maybe those people who are able to have sex without guilt in RL don't need to have sex in SL. No one seems to be asking the question why have sex in SL? To which, of course, the answer is you don't need it in SL if you are getting satisfactory sex in RL. I would bet on a close correlation between those who have virtual sex and those who live in more puritanic social groups that frown on extra- or pre-marital sex. Let's survey only Americans or Brits (who are the ones I have found most likely to want SL sex regularly) and I bet those percentages rise.
Here's another interesting tidbit: I've met more romantic men (the kind who like to take you dancing, romance you, and flirt first) from New England (Boston in particular) than from any other place. The Californians I've met are pushier (wanting slave or BDSM sex, but always trying to talk their way out of paying for it), and Midwesterners split along genderlines: the men don't want/like virtual sex (and sometimes not even real sex) while the women are out there swinging in many directions.
Now granted this is from an even smaller sample than the aforementioned study and reflects only my clients and friends and my own observations. But I still say that, on the whole, those who go for cybersex are filling a need that is missing in their RLs. SL is first and foremost a social network--but whether you use it to make business contacts, new friends, or to find sex, romance, or the love of your life is all going to depend on your own personal needs. No matter what you need from SL, I say go find what makes you happy and when you find it, enjoy it all you can.
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