S ex as we know it is about to change. We are already living through a new sexual revolution, thanks to technologies that have transformed the way we relate to each other in our intimate relationships. But we believe a second wave of sexual technologies is now starting to appear, and these are transforming how some people view their very sexual identity.

People we refer to as “digisexuals” are turning to advanced technologies, such as robots, virtual reality (VR) environments and feedback devices known as teledildonics, to take the place of human partners.

Defining digisexuality

In our research, we use the term digisexuality in two senses. The first, broader sense is to describe the use of advanced technologies in sex and relationships. People are already familiar with what we call first-wave sexual technologies, which are the many things we use to connect us with our current or prospective partners. We text each other, we use Snapchat and Skype, and we go on social apps like Tinder and Bumble to meet new people.

These technologies have been adopted so widely so quickly that it is easy to miss what a profound effect they have had on our intimate lives.

It is fascinating to study how people use technology in their relationships. Not surprisingly, in our research we can already see people displaying different attachment styles in their use of technology. As with their human relationships, people relate to their technology in ways that may be secure, anxious, avoidant or some (often disorganised) combination of the three.

Couples around the world on Valentines Day Show all 23 1 /23 Couples around the world on Valentines Day Couples around the world on Valentines Day Kazuhiko Kobayashi, 80, and his wife Mieko Kobayashi, 73, pose for a photograph at their music shop named Ameyoko Rhythm, specialised for Enka, traditional Japanese popular ballad, in Tokyo's Ameyoko shopping district, Japan, February 8, 2018. "I met her in 1963, 55 years ago. She was a classmate of my younger sister. One day she came over to my house and I took a shine to her because she was so charming. Since that day on, I called her every day. In the beginning, she did not seem to be interested in me, but I conveyed my passion to her. On our first date, I waited at a meeting place for an hour. It turned out she had been advised by her mother and older sister to be late for an hour to see whether I was serious about her. My feelings got through to her, and we married on October 15, 1964, five days after the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics. " REUTERS Couples around the world on Valentines Day Bride Amornrat Ruamsin (L), 27, who is a transgender, holds up her five-month-old daughter with her groom Pitchaya Kachainrum (R), 16, during their wedding ceremony organised by a local TV show, in Bangkok, Thailand, February 9, 2018. The ceremony is not legally-binding as Pitchaya in under 17, the legal age for marriage in Thailand. The couple plan to officially wed after her birthday. "I've had relationships with men before, but it was not that good and I was heartbroken many times. I met Pitchaya on Facebook and I first sent her a message to introduce myself. We fell in love with each other. After living together for more then a year, we agreed to have a baby. So now we have five-month-old daughter and today we got married as our parents wanted. This is the happiest day of my life," Amornrat said. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha SEARCH "GLOBAL LOVE" FOR THIS STORY. SEARCH "WIDER IMAGE" FOR ALL STORIES. REUTERS Couples around the world on Valentines Day Dmitry Shamovich and his wife Anastasia Kuzmenkova play with the dog Amur at their homestead Zaimka Leshego in the village of Sosnovy Bor, Belarus, February 7, 2018. "Four years ago I was here, at the homestead for the first time - we arrived with other birdwatchers to build artificial nests for owls. And I met Dmitry, the owner of homestead, for the first time, here. Later we met again, when I arrived to be a volunteer in a project related to capercaillie. After that we made more projects together and one day I understood I fell in love with him. It was mutual," said Anastasia. REUTERS/Vasily Fedosenko SEARCH "GLOBAL LOVE" FOR THIS STORY. SEARCH "WIDER IMAGE" FOR ALL STORIES. REUTERS Couples around the world on Valentines Day Jenny Ostrom, 37, a director of photography and her husband Chad Ostrom, 37, a director, stand in McCarren Park, near their home in the Brooklyn borough of New York, U.S., February 8, 2018. "We met the first day of college in the middle of the heartland, Kansas. My friends and I thought it noble to help the arriving freshman girl students move into the dorms. There was Jenny, unpacking boxes with her family and in classic, comedy double-take action I walked by her room, stopped, and walked right back to it. Through three states, long-distance dating, high times, low moments and 19 years later, we now share a home, a little girl and a life," said Chad. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson REUTERS Couples around the world on Valentines Day Rute Magalhaes, 33, and Filipe Alves, 38, are seen through a large format camera while they pose for a portrait at their studio in Lisbon, Portugal, February 8, 2018. "We met 12 years ago on the Internet. Photography brought us together and we fell in love. Then we started a studio to help others fall in love with the magic of photos," Rute said. REUTERS Couples around the world on Valentines Day Asha Ahuja, 71, a housewife poses for a portrait with her husband Chandrabhan Ahuja, 73, a businessman inside their house in Mumbai, India, February 7, 2018. Asha said: "It was the summer of 1971 when I met him for the first time. It was our engagement day which was just six days before our marriage. We didn't talk to each other until we got married. I was a free girl and used to go to jam sessions and enjoy time with friends. My life became completely different after I married him. He comes from a religiously conservative family. From a family of four, I had to live in a joint family of 20. I heard from my parents that he was also a religious person. I got to know about his devotional side when he went to a temple at 5 AM after spending our first night together. When I woke up I was alone. I sacrificed a lot after our marriage to adjust to a new environment. We are from a generation where we had to make a lot of compromises to make the marriage work, unlike today. " REUTERS Couples around the world on Valentines Day Hayes Mehana (R), 78, and Om Hany, 60, pose for a photograph at a vegetable market in Cairo, Egypt, February 12, 2018. The couple have been married for 42 years and have 12 children. Their love started at a vegetable market and now they dedicate their time to their 50-year-old vegetable shop business which they both worked to expand. "Our families don't know about Valentine's Day but we built a big family as it was our dream. With my wife, every day is like a festival, not just one day," Hayes said. REUTERS Couples around the world on Valentines Day Aviva Ephrati (L), 84, retired kindergarten teacher, and Israel Ephrati, 87, retired supervisor at a higher educational institution, sit in the living room at the protective housing in Kfar Saba, north of Tel Aviv, Israel, February 8, 2018. The couple managed an art gallery in Haifa for some years. They've been married for 64 years. "In 1950 I met Israel by accident, who was a soldier then, when I was trying to push away another young man who wanted to date me which I didn't want during an evening out in Jerusalem. After that young man left the scene, Israel asked me to date him and I refused, I was willing to be a friend of him but I didn't want anything romantic. In the next four years, I almost got married to another guy who disappeared two weeks before the wedding after his father gave him an ultimatum after finding out that my father was not originally Jewish." REUTERS Couples around the world on Valentines Day Nhuchhe Bahadur Amatya, 76, a retired accountant at Nepal Electricity Authority along with his wife Raywoti Devi Amatya, 74, a housewife, pose for a picture as they sit inside their shop in Lalitpur, Nepal, February 4, 2018. Nhuchhe was 17 and Raywoti was 15 when they had their arranged marriage 59 years ago. "I saw Raywoti for the first time at my home after we officially got married, during the wedding her face was covered with a Ghumto (veil)," said Nchuchhe. REUTERS Couples around the world on Valentines Day Daniela, 37, a Berlin-born social educator, and her partner Arda, 39, a German architect with Turkish roots, pose in front of Altes Museum in Berlin, Germany, February 4, 2018. "I saw Arda in 2015 at an exhibition at the museum. And he recognised me as well. A smile from both sides. One hour later we were sitting together and having a cup of coffee. Now we live together in a nice flat," said Daniela. REUTERS Couples around the world on Valentines Day Alejandra, 44, an education policy consultant and Razhy, 48, a journalist and a human rights activist, walk on a street in the Coyoacan neighbourhood, in Mexico City, Mexico, February 9, 2018. The couple met in Mexico City in 1998, after Razhy was kidnapped and quit his job as a director of a weekly magazine in Oaxaca, a state south of the country. Months later, Alejandra traveled to Europe to study. "I went to study in France, I returned to the country and all went cold, my family did not accept our relationship. Finally, four years later, we were both without partners and decided to meet again. We got married in the neighbourhood of Coyoacan, the neighbourhood where we walked together and we met again after all those years," said Alejandra. REUTERS Couples around the world on Valentines Day Pramodini Roul, 24, an acid attack survivor and a campaigner at Chhanv, an NGO that supports acid attack victims, and her partner Saroj Sahoo, 26, a manager at Chhanv share a moment at the "Sheroes" home for acid attack victims in Noida, India, February 8, 2018. The couple met at a nursing home in Cuttack, India, where Pramodini was undergoing treatment for acid burns. Saroj was friends with the lady nurse who was treating Pramodini and would visit his friend at the nursing home while she was treating Pramodini, which is how the two met for the first time, on April 8, 2014. "On September 14, 2017, after an eye surgery, I was flying with Saroj and suddenly started seeing things clearly. That was the first time I saw Saroj's face. I had never imagined that I would be able to see Saroj in my lifetime," said Pramodini. The couple is scheduled to hold a ring ceremony on ValentineâÃÃ´s Day in Lucknow. REUTERS Couples around the world on Valentines Day Zakir Omur, 58, and his wife Nurgul Omur, 53, pose at their home in Bogatepe village in Kars province, Turkey, February 8, 2018. Zakir is a farmer and Nurgul is a housewife. They have been married for 29 years and have two sons. "When I was young my mother wanted me to marry, I thought it was too early but traditions came first, then young people's will. They said there was a girl, Nurgul, that could be my wife. It was impossible to meet a girl anywhere else." REUTERS Couples around the world on Valentines Day Mezbah Ul Aziz (L), 34, and Mausumi Iqbal, 33, pose for a photo in a coffee shop where they hang out on a regular basis in Dhaka, Bangladesh, February 7, 2018. "Our story was not love-at-first-sight type. In fact, we used to remain at opposite ends of the class mostly when we met first, but you know about magic, it always happens with surprises. Both of us are dentists and married for eight years now. Before that, we met at our dental school on June 1, 2004, on the first day of the class. We both were invited to give a short speech before our classmates and teachers. I went first, and later him. We never admitted, but maybe we felt some spark on the first day, but it was definitely not love. Later, we chose different paths, chose different reading partners for daily life. But fate brought us together after a year and a half." REUTERS Couples around the world on Valentines Day Haidar Ali Moracho, 20, and Coral Ibanez Blanco, 23, pose for a picture at the Moor's Field garden (Campo del Moro) in Madrid, Spain, February 7, 2018. Haidar, a transgender young man who's in his second year of Asian and African Studies at Madrid's Autonoma University and Coral, currently looking for a job, have been dating for seven years. "A friend of mine told me there was a girl who liked Dragon Ball's Vegeta character and wanted to become a boy. She put us in touch virtually and we spent the following year video calling each other before we were able to meet in person in Madrid," said Coral. REUTERS Couples around the world on Valentines Day Tattoo artists, Kathriel Zambrano (L), 23, and Yohanna Gonzalez, 28, pose for a portrait in front of the bar El Molino where they first met, in Caracas, Venezuela, February 9, 2018. Yohanna was working at a bar for an event called InkFest. She was piercing. Meanwhile, Kathriel was being tattooed in front of a stand where she was working. "I didn't give him much attention, because, at the time, I was with another person," said Yohanna. He didn't stop looking at her and tried some pick up lines. "When I saw him, he impressed me because he has very big eyes and the colour was very impressive but nothing else. I left early." One day he texted and asked her what she was doing and if he could go and visit. "He bought me a bottle of anise liquor, but I told him, 'honey, I don't drink, you can buy me a chocolate if you want.' REUTERS Couples around the world on Valentines Day Huang Fusheng (R), 83, and his wife Tang Lanfang, 80, pose with their wedding photo taken in 1958, at Prince Fu Mansion built during Qing dynasty, where they worked together from 1965 to 1992, in central Beijing, China, February 7, 2018. Introduced to one another by their supervisor in 1956, the couple worked together at the mansion, which housed an office under the China National Publications Import and Export Corporation, for 27 years. "I think our marriage is still fresh because we believed in forgiving and understanding each other," said Lanfang. REUTERS Couples around the world on Valentines Day Cathal King, 31, a veterinarian, and Jessica O'Connor, 28, a final-year veterinary student in Budapest, pose for a photograph with dogs on Rossbeigh Beach near the County Kerry village of Rossbeigh, Ireland, February 4, 2018. "We met playing tag rugby in Killarney. We're both very active people. We do adventure races, hiking, and love to travel. We've been together three and a half years. I grew up back here in Rossbeigh so that's the main reason we're here," said Cathal. Dogs are Indi, the Spaniel, which they own together and Pippa, the Jack Russell, Jessica's mother's dog. REUTERS Couples around the world on Valentines Day Huang Chenfeng (R), 63, and her husband Zheng Dingguo, 63, pose for a picture at Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center in Shanghai, China, February 6, 2018. Both originally come from Wenzhou in Zhejiang province. Huang has been taking care of her husband around the clock since he was admitted to the hospital for cancer treatment. The couple had an arranged marriage, organised by their parents in 1972. REUTERS Couples around the world on Valentines Day Noor Djait, 31, an architect and Ismail Benmiled, 36, a businessman pose for a photograph with their three-year-old son Said and four-month-old daughter Malek at their house in Tunis, Tunisia, February 9, 2018. Noor and Ismail lived on the same road and went to the same schools growing up, but never became close until they met in a nightclub when she was 17. "That night was the first time we really made eye contact with each other, the first time I talked to him. I remember I took off my shoes to dance on the table. At the end I only found one, Ismail found the other. He brought it to me two days later, like Cinderella." REUTERS Couples around the world on Valentines Day Oladipupo Baruwa, 45, an investment promotion officer and Funke Baruwa, 43, a gender and development expert, pose for a photograph at home in Abuja, Nigeria, February 9, 2018. "Well, he is persistent. We met at a church on the first Sunday service of the year 2000 and he followed me home after every service from that day on until about two years later. I just loved his persistence and the fact that he didn't want to give up," said Funke. After the birth of their first daughter in 2013 the pair made a commitment that, whatever lay ahead, they would face it together. "For me that has always been the unifyingÂ¿Ã¤ factor... Marriage is a commitment, it is a hard work and when you are willing to work at it, you get better,"Â¿Ã¤Baruwa said. REUTERS Couples around the world on Valentines Day Tony Wakaiga, 18, an art and design student and Suzzy Konje, 18, a hospitality management student pose for a photograph after their date as they walk along Banda Street in Nairobi, Kenya, February 11, 2018. Tony met Suzzy at a modelling photo session on Banda Street and they soon started dating. "We have been very good friends for a long time and our passion for each other has matured like wine. This Valentine's Day, I have a special surprise for Suzzy that will knock her heart out," said Tony. REUTERS Couples around the world on Valentines Day Yolanda Zuniga, 66, and her husband Antonio Carrillo, 65, pose for a photograph in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, February 11, 2018. "He has been my sweetheart since I was 14 years old. We lived in the same neighbourhood. I always loved his sense of humour and we got married when I was 19. My parents wouldn't let me go out dancing. Dancing has become our hobby. We go dancing on Saturdays and Sundays in downtown Ciudad Juarez, dressed as Pachucos. We have five children, 13 grandchildren and six great grandchildren," said Yolanda. REUTERS

There is a second, narrower, sense, in which we use the term digisexuals for people whose sexual identity is shaped by what we call second-wave sexual technologies.

These technologies are defined by their ability to offer sexual experiences that are intense, immersive and do not depend on a human partner. Sex robots are the second-wave technology people are most familiar with. They don’t exist yet, not really, but they have been widely discussed in the media and often appear in movies and on television. Some companies have previewed sex robot prototypes, but these are nothing close to what most people would consider a proper sexbot. They are also incredibly creepy.

Refining sexbots

There are several companies, such as the RealDoll company, working on developing realistic sexbots. But there are a few technical hurdles they have yet to overcome. Truly interactive artificial intelligence is developing slowly, for instance, and it is proving difficult to teach a robot to walk. More interestingly, some inventors have begun experimenting with innovative non-anthropomorphic designs for sexbots.

Meanwhile, VR is progressing rapidly. And in the sex industry, VR is already being used in ways that go beyond the passive viewing of pornography. Immersive virtual worlds and multi-player environments, often coupled with haptic feedback devices, are already being created that offer people intense sexual experiences the real world possibly never could.

Investigative journalist Emily Witt has written about her experience with some of these technologies in her 2016 book, Future Sex: A New Kind of Free Love.

There is compelling evidence that second-wave technologies have an effect on our brains that is qualitatively different from what came before.

MIT professor Sherry Turkle and others have done studies on the intensity of the bond people tend to form with what she calls “relational artefacts” such as robots. Turkle defines relational artefacts as “non-living objects that are, or at least appear to be, sufficiently responsive that people naturally conceive themselves to be in a mutual relationship with them”. Immersive VR experiences also offer a level of intensity that is qualitatively different from other sorts of media.

Immersive experiences

In a lecture at the Virtual Futures forum in 2016, VR researcher Sylvia Xueni Pan explained the immersive nature of VR technology. It creates what she describes as a placement and plausibility illusion within the human brain.

As a result of its real-time positioning, 3D stereo display and its total field of view, the user’s brain comes to believe the user is really present. As she says: “If situations and events that happen in VR actually correlates to your actions and relates personally to you, then you react towards these events as if they were real.”

As these technologies develop, they will enable sexual experiences that many people will find just as satisfying as those with human partners, or in some cases more so.

We believe that in the coming decades, as these technologies become more sophisticated and more widespread, there will be an increasing number of people who will choose to find sex and partnership entirely from artificial agents or in virtual environments.

And as they do, we will also see the emergence of this new sexual identity we call digisexuality.

Sexuality and stigma

A digisexual is someone who sees immersive technologies such as sex robots and virtual reality pornography as integral to their sexual experience, and who feels no need to search for physical intimacy with human partners.

Marginal sexual identities almost invariably face stigma, and it is already apparent that digisexuals will be no exception. The idea of digisexuality as an identity has already received strong negative reactions from many commentators in the media and online.

We should learn from the mistakes of the past. Society has stigmatised gays and lesbians, bisexuals, pansexuals, asexuals, consensually non-mongamous people and practitioners of bondange/discipline-dominance/submission-sadomasochism (BDSM).

Then, as time goes on, we have gradually learned to be more accepting of all these diverse sexual identities. We should bring that same openness to digisexuals. As immersive sexual technologies become more widespread, we should approach them, and their users, with an open mind.

We don’t know where technology is going, and there are definitely concerns that need to be discussed — such as the ways in which our interactions with technology could shape our attitudes towards consent with our human partners.

Our research addresses one specific piece of the puzzle: the question of how technology impacts sexual-identity formation, and how people with technologically based sexual identities may face stigma and prejudice. Yes, there are dangers. But whips and paddles can hurt too.