It’s clear that the experience of viewing VR pov porn is far more real and intimate than that for regular 2D porn. Given that porn is very much under attack these days as a social problem, including the supposedly negative effects it has on young men who regularly view it, an interesting question therefore presents itself. Does watching VR porn (rather than 2D porn) magnify the supposed ‘harmful’ effects of ordinary porn viewing, or is the greater realism and intimacy of it leading to more undeniably positive outcomes for the viewer? This question will no doubt be hotly debated over the coming years and decades, but somewhat surprisingly it still hasn’t really been discussed very much. There have been quite ridiculous mainstream media panics over groping and alleged ‘sexual assaults‘ in the infant metaverse, but VR porn itesef has thus far largely been spared. We can be sure that this wont last very much longer.
It might be wise therefore, for those of us in the sex tech sphere, and for those of us who call ourselves VR porn fans, to explore and highlight the positive aspects of adult VR. A Redditor did just that last week, posting his own experience of how switching to VR porn changed his life for the better.
VR porn in conjunction with “the handy” comes very close to real sex without most of the problems I experienced using regular porn.
Hey guys, just a quick testimonial on my experience with VR porn.
Quick Background: I’ve viewed and jerked off to porn since I was a young teenager. Moved from hating it and being unable to stop all the way to liking and enjoying it. I have a stash setup on my desktop with about 12 TB (😅) of glorious well-organized porn.
The problem with the porn however, was the usual stuff. Difficulty concentrating during the day, lower motivation to handle normal day-to-day tasks, sexual frustration (longing for real sex), fevers, fatigue, recollection of porn images during the day, downstream mental health issues resulting from my inability to get a partner etc. These side-effects pretty much forced me to use only over weekends.
Clearly, this individual was suffering from porn addiction. This point isn’t lost on many of the commentators at the OculusNSFW subreddit, who somewhat rudely dismiss his account on those grounds. However, to me, the fact that he clearly was suffering problems from his hardcore porn viewing, and feels far more positive and healthy after switching to VR porn, is something that is really important and a case that should be applauded and highlighted. He goes on :
Enter VR porn: I recently got myself a Quest 2 and after reading some recommendations, a handy, and a subscription to three VR porn pay sites .
All I can say is things have been great. It feels like I’m having real sex, I don’t have to spend hours viewing different parts of different scenes, the orgasms are much better (thanks Handy!), I can orgasm to the same VR porn video most of the time (I repeat those that have Handy scripts).
The biggest merit though, is that most of the problems I had with 2D porn seem to be gone. I concentrate perfectly the next day (usually use it the night before), I no longer feel fatigued or sick after climax and can now do this everyday (which is now the problem 😅), I’m no longer sexually frustrated, have post-nut clarity all the time and surprisingly got a massive boost to my self-esteem. Finally, I don’t think about or recollect the porn during the day so no random boners. I honestly couldn’t recommend a better use of $500 to any young single man.
A German study in 2020 found that VR porn was indeed felt to be more intimate than regular porn, and associated with triggering the ‘love hormone’ oxytocin.
Fifty healthy male participants watched two pornographic films on consecutive days in the laboratory, randomly one in VR and one traditional two-dimensional (2D) film. The perception of 2D and VR pornography was assessed using several self-report measures. Furthermore, the role of the social neuropeptide oxytocin in facilitating intimacy and interaction was studied. In the VR condition, participants felt more desired, more flirted with, more looked into the eyes. They were also more likely to feel connected with the actors and more likely to feel the urge to interact with them. Interestingly, saliva levels of oxytocin were related to the perceived eye-contact with the virtual persons indicating a role for the social neuropeptide in the perception of increased intimacy and interaction in VR. Thus, VR pornography seems to be a powerful tool to elicit the illusion of intimate sexual experiences.
Just about anybody who has watched VR porn would agree that it is a completely different experience to masturbating to 2d porn, and especially the mindless flicking between countless porn tube clips for an ever greater instant thrill. Despite this, I do think there may be one downside to the greater realism, intimacy, and involvement of a VR porn movie. A jarring emotional crash back to Earth upon realizing that the intense experience you just had was not real after all. I call this emotional response the ‘unhappy valley’, and it’s something that I feel sometimes after watching VR porn, and would expect others to feel, although I have no evidence yet that many others do.
Co-incidentally, whilst composing this article today, I was alerted to the following Psychology Today piece on a similar theme just posted by the clinical psychologist Marianne Brandon Ph.D. It’s worth taking a look at :