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You hear the stuff about porn addiction more and more, and it will be interesting to see how the generation raised with online porn fairs in the dating area and

You hear the stuff about porn addiction more and more, and it will be interesting to see how the generation raised with online porn fairs in the dating area and how they turn out. One side effect reported has been erectile dysfunction from excessive porn usage.

browsercoin 8y ago
Case Point: Japan.
buboard 8y ago
i think the biggest side effect is indifference towards dating. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2017/09/11/end-young-love-dating-decline-among-i-generation-study-finds/ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2017/09/11/end-young-l...
judah 8y ago
The subreddit NoFap[0] shows that internet porn is already a significant problem for tens of thousands of young people, mostly men. Porn addictions described on NoFap show that porn can cause men to have erectile dysfunction (due to "death grip" and desensitization), failure of arousal for real women, extreme shame, and even suicidal thoughts. Reading through that forum, you'll see thousands of people who have tried to quit porn over and over, but continue to relapse. I suspect NoFap is likely a microcosm of the broader society; porn addiction is real, and it's likely widespread. [0]: https://reddit.com/r/nofap https://reddit.com/r/nofap
- jmkni 8y ago
  I think the type of people who frequent subreddits like NoFap have other issues. It’s not the porn that’s the problem, but sexual repression, feeling ashamed of something that’s completely natural, etc.
  - wild_preference 8y ago
    I wouldn't be surprised if masturbation is indeed an easy thing to pin some other issues on for some people. Though I certainly wouldn't want to discourage people from experimenting with what's clearly a large source of anguish in their life. Quite the opposite. I wonder what it's like to grow up with ubiquitous high fidelity porn. I grew up wanking to alt.sex.stories and, at best, thumbnail image galleries and, to be vulgar, Shape magazine. I have to wonder if I'm better off for it.
  - artichokes 8y ago
    Not a no-fapper myself, but my friends who do it seem to do so out of a belief in an effect on hormone levels/motivation rather than a sense of shame.
  - kjeetgill 8y ago
    That's kind-of the trap this whole article is addressing; some people are dealing with issues that are well outside of most peoples' experience. Their issues are so unrelatable that they get written off with these side theories an treated as insincere. I've mentioned elsewhere that Chris Rock and Terry Crews have come out about their experiences with this issue. This lends the issue some legitimacy I think.
- kjeetgill 8y ago
  Two interesting celebrities that have come out to talk about their own struggles with porn addiction: Chris Rock (in his stand-up special Tambourine) and Terry Crews in some IG posts I think. It's always interesting how celebrities, who's lives we know relatively more about than internet strangers, can help contextualize and legitimize the sincerity of these sorts of problems.
- bionsystem 8y ago
  "Nofap" is based on completely misunderstood studies and reaches absurd conclusions from them and from random individual experiences though.
TeMPOraL 8y ago
This should be observable today; that generation is already in their 30s.
forgottenpass 8y ago
That's what, everyone under 30? There's plenty to read about how dating has changed, but it will be hard to control for the other generational changes to relationships. Most significantly, the changes introduced when parents and institutional stand-ins for parents found more important things to do with their time than parenting.

browsercoin 8y ago

Case Point: Japan.

buboard 8y ago

i think the biggest side effect is indifference towards dating. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2017/09/11/end-young-love-dating-decline-among-i-generation-study-finds/ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2017/09/11/end-young-l...

judah 8y ago

The subreddit NoFap[0] shows that internet porn is already a significant problem for tens of thousands of young people, mostly men. Porn addictions described on NoFap show that porn can cause men to have erectile dysfunction (due to "death grip" and desensitization), failure of arousal for real women, extreme shame, and even suicidal thoughts. Reading through that forum, you'll see thousands of people who have tried to quit porn over and over, but continue to relapse. I suspect NoFap is likely a microcosm of the broader society; porn addiction is real, and it's likely widespread. [0]: https://reddit.com/r/nofap https://reddit.com/r/nofap

jmkni 8y ago
I think the type of people who frequent subreddits like NoFap have other issues. It’s not the porn that’s the problem, but sexual repression, feeling ashamed of something that’s completely natural, etc.
- wild_preference 8y ago
  I wouldn't be surprised if masturbation is indeed an easy thing to pin some other issues on for some people. Though I certainly wouldn't want to discourage people from experimenting with what's clearly a large source of anguish in their life. Quite the opposite. I wonder what it's like to grow up with ubiquitous high fidelity porn. I grew up wanking to alt.sex.stories and, at best, thumbnail image galleries and, to be vulgar, Shape magazine. I have to wonder if I'm better off for it.
- artichokes 8y ago
  Not a no-fapper myself, but my friends who do it seem to do so out of a belief in an effect on hormone levels/motivation rather than a sense of shame.
- kjeetgill 8y ago
  That's kind-of the trap this whole article is addressing; some people are dealing with issues that are well outside of most peoples' experience. Their issues are so unrelatable that they get written off with these side theories an treated as insincere. I've mentioned elsewhere that Chris Rock and Terry Crews have come out about their experiences with this issue. This lends the issue some legitimacy I think.
kjeetgill 8y ago
Two interesting celebrities that have come out to talk about their own struggles with porn addiction: Chris Rock (in his stand-up special Tambourine) and Terry Crews in some IG posts I think. It's always interesting how celebrities, who's lives we know relatively more about than internet strangers, can help contextualize and legitimize the sincerity of these sorts of problems.
bionsystem 8y ago
"Nofap" is based on completely misunderstood studies and reaches absurd conclusions from them and from random individual experiences though.

TeMPOraL 8y ago

This should be observable today; that generation is already in their 30s.

forgottenpass 8y ago

That's what, everyone under 30? There's plenty to read about how dating has changed, but it will be hard to control for the other generational changes to relationships. Most significantly, the changes introduced when parents and institutional stand-ins for parents found more important things to do with their time than parenting.