New data: here’s a brief guide to what scientists have learned about the history of sexting

When was the first time you ever came across the term ‘sext’? It surely wasn’t more than a few years ago at most, but now it’s just another word in our collective vocabulary.

You might’ve first come across the term while watching the news, on the internet somewhere, or received a sext yourself. Either way, we all know about the term now, but what is it’s origin story?

Well, it turns out that people have been sexting in various forms since the dawn of man. People have always been really, really horny, and have used drawings, pictures, and writing to get their thoughts off their chest.

Thousands of years ago, some caveman was feeling a little hot, and decided to showcase what he was feeling via cave art. Using some minerals, he drew a rather crude and unpolished scene of him and his lady going to town on each other.

That, ladies and gentleman, was the first sext. Yes, it didn’t include any words and the picture was drawn with a shaky hand, but it got the job done.

Over time, sexts got a bit better, as humans became more intelligent and began to master language and writing. Shakespeare was the sexting king of his time, if you think about it.

Just imagine some guy in a powdered wig sitting in some castle tower, quill scribbling away while he writes variations of a sext for the woman he has his eye on. The words “heaving bosom” likely being mentioned more than once.

You see, sexting isn’t new. We’ve sent sexual messages and images to each other since humans were able to; it’s just becoming mainstream now because of the media.

Throughout our history, humans have been creative with their passion, using drawings, writing, and combinations of the two to create sexual messages. Just because CNN is covering it 24/7 these days doesn’t mean this is anything new.

Since the creation of email, people have sent sexually explicit messages to one another. It’s nothing new.

A reason behind the spread of this term is that people have been sexting via smartphone, something that we all have, and is a very personal device. The media has covered sexting apps among teens and made it seem like it’s an epidemic that’s affecting us all, and in some horrible way, when it’s not.