SEX & LOVE
in the virtual world of Second Life by Alexandra Berry
Love 2.0: A Quantitative Exploration of Sex and Relationships in the Virtual World Second Life by Ashley John Craft explores romantic online relationships and cybersex in the realm of Second Life. First of all, what are online relationships? An Online Relationship is defined as an internet interpersonal relationship, often including intimacy, between people who have met online, and in many cases know each other only through the Internet (Internet Relationship, 2014).
Now the next term used in this study is Cybersex (Craft, 2012). Cyber sex is a behavior to describe two or more individuals engaged in masturbation or other sexual stimulation while communicating using text, audio or video (Craft, 2012).
Second Life is the online virtual game being used in this study (Craft, 2012). Second life is a game that allows the residents to customize their avatars and their environment. Their avatars can range from anatomically correct human beings, robots, animals, and monsters. Residents communicate with each other using text-based chat or voice conference calling in the game (Craft, 2012).
The Participants were recruited through advertisements within Second Life (Craft, 2012). They were not offered any compensation. The Second Life sample included 235 residents. Data from the U.S. General Social Survey was also used. The U.S. General Social Survey is a nationally representative survey of the U.S. population. Data include demographics, behaviors and opinions. To strengthen the comparing of data a subsample of internet users from the U.S. General Social Survey was used (Craft, 2012).
A 100-item web-based survey was used to gather information about participants’ demographics, experience with offline relationships and sexual practices, experience with online relationships and sexual practices, and attitudes and opinions towards offline and online sex and relationships (Craft, 2012).
The researchers wanted to gain an understanding of what kind of online activities the participants experienced (Craft, 2012). What kind of individuals are drawn to sex and romantic relationships online. What participants make of their experiences. Illustrate how new forms of media and ideas of modern love are changing the shape of interpersonal relationships in both online and offline communities (Craft, 2012).