Thirty-five years ago, Berliners rejoiced over the destruction of the Berlin Wall. Yet Eija-Riitta Eklöf-Berliner-Mauer could not bear seeing it destroyed. That is because she had married the Berlin Wall.
Objectophilia, also known as objectum-sexuality, occurs when a person has romantic or sexual attraction to specific objects. When Eklöf-Berliner-Mauer married the wall in 1979—and legally changed her last name as a nod to the Berlin Wall—no one had heard of objectophilia. Emotional or sexual attraction to nonliving things wasn’t prevalent.
It is now. Chatbots are making objectophilia an ordinary occurrence. Research from the Center for Democracy and Technology found that one in five high school students or their friends have used a bot for a romantic relationship.
Read Full Article »