The tech world has changed every human relationship in the past 20 years, at least. On the positive side, our tech life has allowed us to reconnect with people we knew in High School, in college, in our first jobs. That can be wonderful and empowering, as so many Facebook users know.
There is also a darker side to the anonymity of our technological connections, though. By remaining secret, we often believe that we can engage in behaviors that we’d otherwise never dare to try.
Former Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-NY) has fallen prey to the allure of internet anonymity. The Congressman has famously been caught sending out photos of himself, in a sexually excited state to women who are not his wife. This behavior has cost him his job, his political career, and now, his wife.
So what is it that compels a seemingly normal human to engage in the allure of tech enhanced sexual behavior?
CNN reports that research into the subject of sexting has yielded some interesting results. It appears that most of the people who fall into this pattern of behavior are actually in committed relationships.
Rob Weisskirch is a professor of human development at California State University at Monterey Bay. He ran a study into the question of who is likely to send sexually explicit images or messages online.
His research was interesting and somewhat surprising. Weisskirch and his colleagues found that people who have been able to form secure attachments in their lives, and who are in relationships with a level of commitment, are more likely to sext than other people. This is true, though, only if the person has some concerns about how their partner reacts to them sexually.
Even more interesting, I think, is the fact that the research showed clearly that a tendency to send sexually explicit messages is linked to the belief that one’s partner wants the behavior to occur. This researcher reports that it is partly out of a desire to please the partner that a person engages in sexting behaviors.
Interesting body of research, to say the very least.
Featured image by Isham Park via Flickr. Available through Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike Generic license 2.0.
