Are apps like Grindr and SCRUFF turning people into crazed sex addicts? According to Dr. Wendell Rosevear, the answer is: Yes.
In an interview with the Curious Mail, Rosevear says the urge for “instant sex” due to the rise of hookup apps is turning people promiscuous and warping their judgement when it comes to safe sex practices, leading to an increase in STIs, particularly among people ages 15-35.
“I think people are a bit immune to the burden of having to be safe with sex and a lot of people don’t like condoms,” he says. “But also there is now a sense of entitlement where people think: ‘it’s my right to have unsafe sex’. … They have disinhibited sex under the influence of ice or marijuana or alcohol, so they live in a world of no consequences.”
Let’s not paint with a broad brush, doc!
How about we take this to the next level?
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According to Rosevear, these dangerous apps are causing people who lead “desperately lonely compartmentalized lives” to become “addicted to quick or anonymous sex.” He claims that some of them even have sexual relations with strangers up to 10 times a day. It’s their way of feeling like they belong.
“People are becoming more reliant on social media and app connection,” the doctor explains. “They are desperately wanting short, anonymous connection to alleviate that need to have a sense of belonging.”
But it gets worse. Because Rosevear, who admits he met his own partner on a dating site, also says gay men are especially vulnerable.
“People can be quite lonely, a lot of gay people fear they will end up old and alone, but equally, the internet does allow people to connect who may not otherwise meet,” the doctor warns. “I have patients who spend their whole lives through internet socialization but can’t meet face-to-face with friends on the internet. Some patients have only internet lives, they even have sex only over the internet.”
Related: Too Many White Guys On Grindr & Too Many Are Racist, Blogger Laments
As a result of all this rampant sex, Rosewear says, STI infections are on the rise and people are forgetting what it means to be in a satisfying long-term relationship.
“People are pushed into seeking validation from as many sexual partners as they can,” he says. “That recipe of using attention as a substitute for acceptance means they get tunnel vision of only seeing the immediate gratification.”
OK, doc. …Or maybe they just want to get laid?
What do you think? Have hookup apps caused you to become absolutely addicted to casual sex with complete strangers? Are you getting naked with a different person up to ten times a day? Share your thoughts below…
Frank
First of all these are NOT dating apps (Grindr, SCRUFF, Adam4Adam, etc) for the majority of the users…these are SEX apps therefore it makes sense that some people would be turned in addicts…
ChrisK
Great point.
Winter79
Huh.
I’ve been on both Grindr and Scruff for years and have never had a single hookup off either of them.
Me2
There’s some truth to his theory. As soon as sex became easier to get, relationships became harder to find.
Frank
Gospel truth…people whether gay or straight will blur the lines of a “relationship” all the while seeking sex if it is readily available…
dwes09
Sorry! This is a pile of bull. There is no difference between the use of sex apps today and the use of bars, public parks, highway rest stops, sex shops and sex theaters, and “tea rooms” in the past.
People somehow think that history began in the late 1990’s and all current trends are only current. The same sorts of articles were written by the same sorts of people (blue-nosed heterosexuals, and sport-sex averse homosexuals) many years ago. I remember seeing these same sorts of articles in the same alarmist tones back in the late 60’s and early 70’s when I was just starting to come out. Same thing “man having 10 partners a day in a sad search for self affirmation”.
The ONLY thing that needs to be stressed, the only issue needing alarmist tones is the spread of STD’s. People who have many partners may or may not be sex addicts, they may or may not have self esteem issues, they may or may not need help. But they universally need to take responsibility for protection. And given multi-drug resistant bacterial infections, HPV, and fungal infections, PrEP is not enough.
dwes09
Sex addiction seems no more prevalent today, and if anything, monogamy seems to be more prevalent than it was in the ’70’s when you were likely to be ridiculed for even suggesting it, at least in urban communities .