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I would agree, though we might (or not:) vehemently disagree with the premises and conclusions. I find Pornography in specific, and sex in general, is somethin

I would agree, though we might (or not:) vehemently disagree with the premises and conclusions. I find Pornography in specific, and sex in general, is something people have very strong basic opinions about. In particular, a lot of people intersect religious morals into the picture, which can make conversations difficult at best, disingenuous more commonly :-(. For example, my own basic approach is "what do you mean 'obscenity regulations'? What kind of silly thing is that amongst adults?". It then tends to get complicated due to numbers - often people promoting such regulations and laws upon other adults are hugely vehement about government over reach and regulation in other areas, so it ends up feeling like hipocrisy or "I want government to ban things I don't like and allow things I do like". But this is hacker news! Nothing stops are from trying to have that honest conversation :-). My honest opinion is that I come from a prudeish culture, and thank goodness teenagers today can have their key questions answered more openly and have access to things I had to sneak and feel guilty about. Access to porn is not in top ten things I worry about for my kids, but I am willing to listen otherwise :-).

fullshark 2y ago
I think the status quo post-internet world is better than the world pre-internet. I think good outweighs the bad, a lot of this though is from genuinely informative message boards and websites re: sexuality which you highlight. The hypothetical homosexual teenager in a small town that can now find like minded people and talk to them about their sexuality and make sense of it is a godsend. I'm more thinking about the downsides of the erotic material being available 24/7 to every person in their pocket and inducing addictive behaviors. The teenage boys that have seen explicit pornography before ever even kissing a girl, and how that influences their expectations and behaviors while dating. The incels that don't even attempt to make themselves attractive to the opposite sex but instead indulge in auto-erotic gratification from consuming digital content (hikikomori), soon to be augmented by AI. These people are chasing dopamine hits instead of genuine human connection, something formally driven by lust/sexual desire for better or worse and it's going to have major cultural impacts.
- Hizonner 2y ago
  I saw explicit pornography before ever kissing a girl. So did everybody I knew well enough to have known whether they had or not. In the 1970s. We did not have an Internet. No, the volume wasn't nearly as high, nor was the technical quality. As for "expectations", non-porn media also have horrible expectations about gender and relationships. In fact, they have more of them and are able to convey them in more detail. And the fact is that today's teenaged boys are a lot more respectful toward their prospective-or-desired partners than my cohort was, porn or no porn.

fullshark 2y ago

I think the status quo post-internet world is better than the world pre-internet. I think good outweighs the bad, a lot of this though is from genuinely informative message boards and websites re: sexuality which you highlight. The hypothetical homosexual teenager in a small town that can now find like minded people and talk to them about their sexuality and make sense of it is a godsend. I'm more thinking about the downsides of the erotic material being available 24/7 to every person in their pocket and inducing addictive behaviors. The teenage boys that have seen explicit pornography before ever even kissing a girl, and how that influences their expectations and behaviors while dating. The incels that don't even attempt to make themselves attractive to the opposite sex but instead indulge in auto-erotic gratification from consuming digital content (hikikomori), soon to be augmented by AI. These people are chasing dopamine hits instead of genuine human connection, something formally driven by lust/sexual desire for better or worse and it's going to have major cultural impacts.

Hizonner 2y ago
I saw explicit pornography before ever kissing a girl. So did everybody I knew well enough to have known whether they had or not. In the 1970s. We did not have an Internet. No, the volume wasn't nearly as high, nor was the technical quality. As for "expectations", non-porn media also have horrible expectations about gender and relationships. In fact, they have more of them and are able to convey them in more detail. And the fact is that today's teenaged boys are a lot more respectful toward their prospective-or-desired partners than my cohort was, porn or no porn.