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> an effect Maybe, but what effect, and is it "harm"? The NPR thing was quick to pivot on the idea that being overfed on porn is making teenagers impotent, bu

by 13of40 10y ago

> an effect Maybe, but what effect, and is it "harm"? The NPR thing was quick to pivot on the idea that being overfed on porn is making teenagers impotent, but that's been a mainstay of propaganda campaigns for time immemorial. Off the top of my head, I can recall seeing PSAs in my youth that marijuana causes low sperm count, steroids make your testicles shrink, and smoking and drinking cause impotence. Maybe they do, but the reason they're calling it out versus, say, increased risk of heart disease, is that it's a scare campaign.

justratsinacoat 10y ago
>Maybe, but what effect, and is it "harm"? Indeed, that's the question! One thing is certain -- that whole quality-ease of access apogee I was going on about earlier is making it a lot harder to study the subject wrt "effects", because finding non-pornwatching WEIRD [0] controls is basically impossible [1]. On the other hand, most studies do seem to indicate that watching porn is good for your views about gender equality. And the chance of prostate cancer later in life is decreased via, er, vigorous masturbation in one's young adult life. Which is great! I just can't help but draw parallels to the other ways in which modern society tricks some otherwise reasonable element of the human machine (like putting refined sugar in things, or the blue in our screens making our suprachiasmatic nuclei think the sun's still up at 1am). [0] Western, educated, industrialized, rich and democratic. People who hail from societies like these are overwhelmingly the subjects of psychological research (and further selection-bias-y still, they're usually university students), to the exclusion of the other 88% of humanity. http://www.apa.org/monitor/2010/05/weird.aspx http://www.apa.org/monitor/2010/05/weird.aspx [1] eg, http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-12/uom-ate120109.php http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-12/uom-ate120109... While this didn't actually coalesce into a study, there's actually a lot more examples of this. New media loves reporting on it.

by 13of40 10y ago

justratsinacoat 10y ago

>Maybe, but what effect, and is it "harm"? Indeed, that's the question! One thing is certain -- that whole quality-ease of access apogee I was going on about earlier is making it a lot harder to study the subject wrt "effects", because finding non-pornwatching WEIRD [0] controls is basically impossible [1]. On the other hand, most studies do seem to indicate that watching porn is good for your views about gender equality. And the chance of prostate cancer later in life is decreased via, er, vigorous masturbation in one's young adult life. Which is great! I just can't help but draw parallels to the other ways in which modern society tricks some otherwise reasonable element of the human machine (like putting refined sugar in things, or the blue in our screens making our suprachiasmatic nuclei think the sun's still up at 1am). [0] Western, educated, industrialized, rich and democratic. People who hail from societies like these are overwhelmingly the subjects of psychological research (and further selection-bias-y still, they're usually university students), to the exclusion of the other 88% of humanity. http://www.apa.org/monitor/2010/05/weird.aspx http://www.apa.org/monitor/2010/05/weird.aspx [1] eg, http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-12/uom-ate120109.php http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-12/uom-ate120109... While this didn't actually coalesce into a study, there's actually a lot more examples of this. New media loves reporting on it.