Are Smartphone Apps the Sexual Health Tech of the Future?
Personalized, powerful, and incredibly discreet.
With the dawn of the internet, sex educators were given a very powerful new tool. The anonymity of the world wide web allowed for the discreet, anonymous dissemination of information; meaning that it could be used to help people get the answers to questions they might feel too embarrassed to ask in person. Like, for instance, questions about sex.
In the early days of the web, pioneering projects like Columbia University’s Go Ask Alice! offered an exciting new way to get sexual health information. But as the web has evolved, the high-tech platforms of yesteryear have begun to seem a little dated — and tech-savvy educators have struggled to find something to take their place.
To some, social media might seem like the obvious next step. A tech platform that’s all about peer-to-peer connections and information sharing, social media seems tailor-made for a field that’s long been built on peer education. Some might dream of using Twitter to target teen pregnancy, or Facebook to encourage condom use — but unfortunately, many attempts to harness the power of social media for sex education have made it abundantly clear that it’s not always a match made in heaven. The abundantly public nature of social media doesn’t always play nicely with the private nature of discourse about sex; and those who need the information the most might be the least willing to publicly form a connection with, say, Planned Parenthood or Trojan condoms.
Smartphone apps, on the other hand, might actually be the tech that helps us launch the sex ed of the future. Unlike Facebook or Twitter, smartphone apps have the ability to be completely discreet. And they offer users an easy way to get access to the answers — and the services — that they want and need.
Wondering what smartphone powered sex ed might look like? Two new apps offer an interesting look at the possible direction for sexual health tech:
SexPositive: Produced by the University of Oregon Health Center, SexPositive bills itself as “a shame-free sex education
smartphone app.” Open the program up, and you’re presented with a colorful little wheel labeled with a variety of body parts. Spin the wheel, and different body parts are paired. The app then provides you with information on the STI risks of everything from penis-vagina contact to finger-finger contact. It’s addictive, it’s fun, and — most importantly — it’s incredibly informative without falling into the standard, boring lecture about proper condom use.
Hula: While SexPositive is solely concerned with providing information, Hula works to get people connected to actual sexual health services — namely, STI testing. A fascinating new app, Hula offers a two pronged approach. For users considering getting tested, the service offers information about where they can obtain STI tests, how much the tests will cost, and any other information they might need to know about the testing center (Does it cater to a specific demographic? What are its hours?). Users who’ve already been tested can use the service to access their results — and, even more interestingly, use it to show their current or potential partners just how recently they’ve been tested, and what their results were.
Both SexPositive and Hula are very new, and it remains to be seen whether they’ll gain any traction, or just fall by the wayside. But even if these particular apps don’t ultimately change the world of sex education and sexual health, they still outline the ways that smartphone apps can offer a convenient, personalized, and highly private method of getting access to the sexual health information and services — something all of us could benefit from.
