People Who Use Emojis Have More Sex... Or Do They? 🍑🍆💦

I recently came across a study that suggested those who used more emojis in CMC (that being Computer-Mediated Communication) were more likely to succeed in doing the sexy things. So. Being both 1) a person who has some (?) expertise on the *subject and 2) someone who enjoys the sexy things, I figured it'd be interesting to delve deeper.

If you're unfamiliar with the recent study that came from the Kinsey Institute - feel free to familiarise yourself with the findings by looking here - or checking out the UNILAD article (where I first encountered it).

Essentially, though, it was noted that those who used more emojis within CMC were found to report having more sexual relations than those who did not use emojis. Despite it being only a correlational result (and therefore we cannot define a causative link) - how can we perhaps explain why this occurs? Here's what the researchers said:

"According to social penetration theory [23], as relationships advance, interpersonal communication moves from more superficial to more intimate levels. This development occurs primarily through self-disclosure: partners advance to deeper levels of intimacy as they engage in more affective communication with their partner. Engaging in affective self-disclosure may be more challenging through CMC, thus preventing partners from successfully developing shared understanding and advancing to higher levels of intimacy. However, emojis may help supply the socio-emotional affective components of interpersonal communication into CMC, thereby facilitating intimacy and relationship development." Gesselman AN, Ta VP, Garcia JR (2019)

First off, I love that it has the word penetration in there. Secondly - aside from my own childish snickers - can we really assume that a littering of emojis in our computer-mediated communications will actually boost our sexual prowess?

Is it because those who use such devices are more confident? More empathetic in their approach? If it's assumed to be an effective use of facilitating intimacy then perhaps those people are just more aware of their potential partners/hook-ups in general?

Many questions stem from the study for me - just what emojis/emoticons are used? Where are they situated within the message - is there but a scattering of hopeful emojis or is there something more going on with the placement?

Are we seeing a correlation between what is perceived as being a 'sexual' emoji and more sexual encounters, or is it simply  that adding a few smiley faces in there means we are perceived as being more friendly and approachable? It would certainly be revealing to study the exact emojis used and whether this can explain any more.

Also, given that one participant was excluded from the data after identifying as neither male nor female - just how can we bring this into new research? I am certainly intrigued by how this study and the findings can be expanded upon.

Anyway, as noted in the study in their conclusion:  

"Emojis appear to be an important aspect of social behavior in today’s digital world that can be used strategically as affective signals, particularly in the domain of human courtship."

Over and out. 🍆🍆🍆 
           


*See my previous work on SWB Texts - it was interesting to note that the majority were white/caucasian within these interactions: Most (86.8%) identified as straight/heterosexual, 9.6% as gay or lesbian, and 3.5% as bisexual. Most (62.2%) identified as White/Caucasian, 18.8% Black/African-American, 15.0% Hispanic/Latino, 5.9% Asian, 2.0% North American Indian/Alaskan Native/Pacific Islander, and 3.3% identified as “other.” 

Reference: Gesselman AN, Ta VP, Garcia JR (2019) Worth a thousand interpersonal words: Emoji as affective signals for relationship-oriented digital communication. PLoS ONE 14(8): e0221297. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0221297

The Sober Truth: Part 4

Previous to this there was another part which you could read here: Part 3

Caroline didn't realise how much she'd missed this. Just sitting, chatting, laughing. The alcohol had managed to ease the awkward barrier and now she was talking away without feeling the need to mask her life. She didn't care if she sounded like a complete failure, because honestly it sounded like they all were. None of them had achieved what they had all so foolishly planned in their younger years.

So it wasn't too much of a surprise when Caroline followed Paul to his bedroom. The familiarity of it all brought Caroline some form of comfort she hadn't experienced in a while. They had left Sarah and Rob talking, well, touching one another in an extremely unsubtle manner. The roughness of his hand surprised Caroline as it guided her unceremoniously to his room. Had they always been so weathered? For a brief moment Caroline was worried she had come to the wrong flat and that this man who was now sprawled out across the bed was in fact an imposter. But then the all too familiar scent of Dettol hit her again. Christ, even the bedding was still the same.

 Caroline briefly paused to finish the wine, and leaving the glass on the sideboard, turned to move towards the bed. Paul, laying in just his boxers, started to move his hands slowly down his chest. Bloody hell. Even his underwear was the same as before, Caroline thought, the same unmistakable little Mexican faces smiling back at her, dressed in little ponchos and surrounded by cacti. However the pattern was distorted somewhat. Stretched. Paul looked up at Caroline, their eyes meeting. He smiled cheekily, as his eyes drifted downwards towards himself. Looking back up at her, his head tilted to the side, he asked "So why are you not naked...?" Good question. And Caroline's response was very eagerly received by Paul.

And Just For Fun

This is just a bit of fun, I got it from somewhere in the vast space of the internet. So if you're bored, or just want to procrastinate more than you're actually doing currently, go ahead (you'll need a piece of paper and pen or something): 

TEST

• First, write 1 through to 11 in a column.

• Then, in the first and second spaces, fill in any two numbers you want.

• In the 3rd and 7th spaces, write down the names of members of the opposite sex.

• Write any name (like friends or family…) in the 4th, 5th, and 6th spots.

• Write down four song titles in 8, 9, 10 and 11.

Before you look at the results here's how I imagine I'd look if I were an astronaut

RESULTS

• The name in space 3 is the one you love.

• The person in 7 is the one you like but can’t work out.

• You care most about the person you put in 4.

• Number 5 is the one who knows you very well.

• The name in 6 is your lucky star.

• The song in 8 is the song that matches with the person in 3.

• The title in 9 is the song for 7.

• The tenth space is the song that tells you most about your mind.

• And 11 is the song telling how you feel about sex!

Well, there you go. All I can say is that it's been fun. I hope it revealed a lot about you.

(My number 11 was Irresistible Force. Heh)

Festival Shenanigans: Chapter 2

This chapter is courtesy of the wonderful @Sublime_Sophism so please enjoy, I thought it was pretty damn good myself. He definitely has a talent for this sort of thing.

He kissed me, like I’d never been kissed before. Well, I hadn’t been kissed before. As he kissed me, I felt his lips exploring mine, my own personal Columbus – trust me to relate romance to education. As he kissed me, we fell back, onto the muddy floor outside my tent. I couldn’t help but laugh, and neither could he. He was pretty when he laughed, I loved it.

 He stopped kissing me, and moved into my tent, leading me in. He pulled my top off, it was cold, as the day was coming to an end, I didn’t think I’d stay cold for long, as he moved his warm hands across my body... I couldn’t believe it was happening. He took his top off too, he wasn’t defined like all these Calvin Klein models, but, he wanted me. I felt the button on my jeans undo, and looked down to see him pull my jeans off. He threw them away, and they bounced off the tent side and fell onto my face. He laughed, freely, and I couldn’t help but laugh either. He pulled them off my face and kissed me again. I felt his warm fingers travel down my body, drawing a line from my neck, across my breasts, down my navel and onto the hem of my underwear, as he began to pull them down. I gulped, I knew what was coming. His hand pulled my underwear completely off, then his hands began to climb my leg again, it didn’t take him long to get to the top of my thigh, and slowly moved his hands across me... there.

 Before I knew it, he was naked too, kissing my neck, making it seem romantic... In reality, I was losing my virginity to someone I just met, in a tent, in a muddy field in Reading. I’d read Lady Chatterley’s Lover, and John Dunne’s poetry – that was glamorised, romanticised. It was over before it began really, in a series of gasps, but it felt... Different. Good. I liked it, a new feeling. He seemed happy too, so relaxed and care-free, and we just laid there together, as he pulled Amira’s sleeping bag over us, together, in our own little microcosm.