Skin Hunger in the Age of Outsourced Intimacy: Can Digisexuality Satisfy Our Need for Touch?

Tuesday, September 17, 2024.

As we embrace digital advances that continue to reshape intimacy, a new frontier called digisexuality is emerging, where ordinary folks seek emotional and sexual fulfillment through digital interactions—whether it’s through virtual reality (VR), artificial intelligence, or having sex with robots.

But this raises a profound question: Can these technologies satisfy our very human need for physical touch, known as skin hunger?

Let’s dive deeper into what skin hunger means in the context of digisexuality and explore whether technology can truly replace the warmth of human contact.

A History of Skin Hunger: From Poetic Longings to Pandemic Realities

The craving for touch has long been expressed through art and literature.

Rumi, the 13th-century Persian poet, captured this primal need beautifully in lines like, “With life as short as a half-taken breath, don't plant anything but love.”

Rumi's words hint at how fleeting yet essential our most intimate, physical experiences can be. He understood that love and connection aren’t just abstract concepts but are deeply felt in the body—through the act of touch.

Similarly, in Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche DuBois' dependency on physical interaction, encapsulated in her famous line,

"I have always depended on the kindness of strangers," speaks to her need for connection in a world that leaves her feeling untethered.

The absence of meaningful touch in Blanche’s life leads to her emotional unraveling, highlighting how central physical contact is to our psychological well-being.

The Science Behind Skin Hunger: Why Touch Matters

Skin hunger, or the longing for physical contact, is much more than a craving for sensation—it’s a core part of what it means to be human. Our bodies are hardwired for touch from the moment we are born.

Studies have shown that skin-to-skin contact between newborns and caregivers regulates vital functions like heart rate and temperature, and helps establish emotional bonds. As we grow, touch continues to regulate our emotional state, reduce stress, and increase our overall well-being (Field, 2014).

A study in Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences found that touch triggers the release of oxytocin, the hormone responsible for feelings of trust and bonding (McGlone, Wessberg, & Olausson, 2014).

Without touch, humans can experience increased levels of stress, loneliness, and even physical pain. Touch is not just a physical experience—it’s emotional, and this is where the challenge lies for digisexuality. Can technology, no matter how advanced, replicate this profound connection?

Digisexuality: Can Technology Satisfy Skin Hunger?

Digisexuality is grounded in the belief that technology can mediate and enhance human relationships, offering new ways to experience intimacy. It’s a really bad idea.

Virtual reality platforms and haptic technology (which simulates touch in digital environments) are already being developed to allow users to experience tactile sensations in virtual spaces. Devices like the Teslasuit allow for full-body haptic feedback, where users can feel virtual touches as if they were real.

Sex robots are also advancing, promising emotionally responsive partners that can fulfill not just sexual desires but emotional needs as well.

But the question remains: Can this technology truly satisfy skin hunger, or is it simply a high-tech illusion?

The Emotional Limits of Technology

While some acids claim that digisexuality offers exciting possibilities, the emotional component of touch is far more nuanced than mere physical sensation.

Human touch carries with it layers of emotional meaning—love, comfort, care—that are context-dependent.

The touch of a partner’s hand, for example, means something entirely different than the pressure of a machine.

It’s not just the sensation of being touched that matters, but who is touching you, and why.

This is why digisexuality, for all its potential, may ultimately fall short in satisfying the deep emotional craving we call skin hunger.

A study published in Computers in Human Behavior (Nowak & Fox, 2018) found that even in highly immersive digital environments, people often report feeling disconnected after extended periods of virtual interaction. The absence of real human presence can lead to a paradoxical sense of isolation, even when virtual touch is simulated. Digisexuality will finds its niche a pimped-out ride for masturbation.

Skin Hunger, Digisexuality, and Awe

Interestingly, touch is closely linked to another profound emotional state: awe.

In the same way that experiencing a breathtaking natural landscape can evoke a sense of vastness and connection to something greater than ourselves, touch has the potential to dissolve the boundaries between individuals.

Psychologist Dacher Keltner has noted that touch can elicit feelings of awe by connecting us to another person in a deep and meaningful way (Keltner & Haidt, 2003).

The problem with digisexuality is that while it can simulate the physical aspects of touch, it often lacks the emotional depth that evokes awe and connection. A robot’s touch may be precise, but it lacks the warmth, understanding, and emotional complexity that makes human touch awe-inspiring.

What Does This Mean for the Future?

Because there are many unwise people advocating for digisexuality to become more mainstream, it’s important to consider how it will affect our relationships with ourselves and each other.

Will it satisfy skin hunger in the short term, only to leave us craving more genuine connection in the long run?

Or can technology evolve to the point where it meets not only our physical needs but our emotional ones as well?

There’s also the question of balance.

Could digisexuality work alongside human relationships, filling in the gaps where distance or circumstance makes touch impossible?

For instance, long-distance couples might use virtual reality to maintain intimacy when they’re apart, or elderly individuals in care homes might use haptic devices to simulate touch when in-person contact is rare.

While these technologies may help alleviate some of the effects of skin hunger, they may never fully replace the depth of human connection that comes from real touch.

Final Thoughts and Questions

As we move forward into an increasingly digital world, it’s worth asking: Can technology ever truly meet our deepest emotional and psychological needs?

Will the convenience and novelty of digisexuality distract us from seeking more meaningful forms of touch? And what might the long-term effects be if we continue to outsource our intimacy to machines?

Skin hunger is, at its core, about much more than just physical contact. It’s about connection, emotion, and the awe that comes with being close to another person.

While digisexuality may offer new ways to explore intimacy, it may never fully quench our craving for the warmth and emotional resonance of human touch.

Be Well, Stay Kind, and Godspeed.

REFERENCES:

Field, T. (2014). Touch: How it affects development. Developmental Psychobiology, 56(3), 535-546.

Keltner, D., & Haidt, J. (2003). Approaching awe, a moral, spiritual, and aesthetic emotion. Cognition and Emotion, 17(2), 297-314.

McGlone, F., Wessberg, J., & Olausson, H. (2014). Discriminative and affective touch: Sensing and feeling. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 20(1), 144-152.

Nowak, K. L., & Fox, J. (2018). Avatars and computer-mediated communication: A review of the definitions, uses, and effects of digital representations. Computers in Human Behavior, 24(1), 1-14.

Williams, T. (1947). A Streetcar Named Desire. New Directions