The New World of Sex Toys
If the global lockdown has taught us anything, it’s that sex toys have become the new it thing. While people were stuck in their houses for weeks on end, they began to realize that without a sex toy, things can get a little lonely and dry - a deadly combination.
What can you do when human contact has been removed from your day-to-day life? When intimacy is non-existent, on even the most basic of levels, times get tough. Once upon a time, sex toys were seen as taboo, but now, they’re an essential thing in everyone’s dresser drawer.
With these global shifts, people realized their traditional vibrator or dildo wasn’t going to do the trick anymore. But where can you go from there? We’ve become so comfortable with our traditional toys, thinking of toys that can provide you more than just physical pleasure sounds almost alien. What’s the next step forward for the sex tech industry?
In Back to the Future, they said in 2020, we would have flying cars. But no one predicted our sex toys would be more futuristic than the vehicles we drive. By using technological advancements to improve self-pleasure, the sex toy industry is leading the way in innovation, and to be honest, no one expected it to happen. But the numbers don’t lie.
Though sex toys were always a huge global market, this year, we’ve seen a climb as the industry as it’s expected to make $31.25 billion in 2020 alone. That’s a $2.6 billion increase since last year. But this increase isn’t going to stop. By 2026, it’s projected the sex toy industry will reach an impressive $52.7 billion. But what toys are people buying?
Today, we slowly see the future of the sex toy industry being divided into two: teledildonics and sex dolls. And let’s just say, they’re both big a hit with consumers. But even though these two avenues are popular, they’re quite different from one another.
Teledildonics and Sex Dolls: Not One in the Same
Teledildonics and sex dolls both belong under sex toys, yet they serve very different purposes. Cheap sex dolls have always been around, they’re either inflatable or silicone, and you’ve seen them in many rom-coms.
But they’ve transitioned from a cheap sex toy into a futuristic partner for people looking for sexual release and companionship. These sex robots, though unable to pass the Turing test, are able to engage in basic erotic conversation. Sex robots, ideally, replace intimate human relationships.
Though this sounds exciting, have you seen the movie Lars And The Real Girl? Where Ryan Gosling, a socially awkward man, gets into a relationship with a sex doll? If you haven’t watched it, you should. Sex robots can help boost self-confidence and reduce loneliness, but people who use them must be aware of the risk of replacing human relationships with an inanimate object - no matter how real the sex doll looks like.
In addition, by using sex dolls, users aren’t learning about female pleasure. So although users can develop a better relationship with the concept of sex and help them through any sexual anxiety they may have, the user lacks immediate and constructive feedback from their partner.
Connection through Teledildonics
But this is where teledildonics and sex dolls differ. Sex dolls are designed for an individual experience, whereas teledildonics is based around the idea of connecting people through their sex toys. We’ve revolutionized the way we meet people through apps, and now we’re changing the way we have sex.
Many people are in long-distance relationships or are single, looking for new ways to connect with their sexual partners and explore their sexual preferences. For long-distance relationships, teledildonics answers one of the biggest problems in that specific relationship: intimacy.
With couples separated, intimacy is a huge obstacle, and many couples don’t last because of it. However, toys such as the Kiiroo couples set remove the distance between partners as they’re able to control each other’s toys via the mobile app. The app even allows them to see each other, and it gives them the feelings of connectedness and intimacy that they were missing.
But teledildonics isn’t only for couples in long-distance relationships. They’re also for single people interested in exploring their sexual preferences or have realistic masturbation sessions. The beauty of teledildonic toys is everyone can use them, regardless of your sexual needs.
If you want to step out of reality and into another world, the virtual reality (VR) options give you that choice. If you want to join a sex party and experiment with other people in your home’s safety, you can do that too.
Teledildonic toys aren’t designed to replace intimacy; they’re designed to promote self-intimacy and aid relationships. In other words, they’re filling the gap of what earlier toys struggled to achieve: connection.
Two different paths, two different goals
Teledildonics and sex robots are here to stay. As the world continues down a futuristic path, the sex tech industry will continue pushing the boundaries by creating innovative toys that do more than just produce an orgasm.
But there’s a very clear distinction between sex robots and teledildonics, with sex robots eliminating human contact and the latter promoting human connection. Which one will come out the winner? As with anything, the people will decide.
WRITTEN BY
Natasha Ivanovic
Natasha Ivanovic is an intimacy, dating, and relationship writer best known for her writings on Kiiroo, LovePanky, Post Pravda, and more. She's the creator and author of her short stories on TheLonelySerb. She completed her first degree in Criminology and continued and finished her Masters in Investigative Psychology, but then decided to follow her true passion of writing.
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