Exploring love & intimacy in social virtual realities

Social Virtual Reality (SVR) platforms like VRChat are revolutionizing digital relationships, offering lifelike interactions through immersive technologies such as avatars and real-time gestures. This study explores how SVR shapes romantic and sexual connections by analyzing 88 Reddit discussions. Findings reveal that SVR enables emotionally rich, spontaneous interactions akin to offline experiences, but that challenges such as anonymity, authenticity, and the lack of physical touch complicate meaningful connections. However, users also reported about the ways they try to overcome these barriers with strategies like modality switching and cross-platform engagement. Scientific and practical implications will also be discussed during the presentation.