Slashdot Mirror
Pr0n's Effect On Society
Rytis writes "An article at the Financial Times is analysing the growing impact of internet pornography, the phenomena itself and the problems that it causes to our society. Surveys within Great Britain have shown that more than a half of 9-19 years olds have seen pornography online. From the article: 'To some men, Haynes argues, clicking on porn is simply a way to pass the time. It's a hobby. Once they'd idly play solitaire; now they idly click on a porn site. Others, though, succumb to addiction: Most addictions are to do with internal emptiness, wanting to fill up dead space, and addiction is always destructive.'"
and I get a "Move along, nothing to see here".
... to fill up dead space on my hard drive. ^^
lovely pr0n
I wonder what the split was along gender lines?
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
Porn is an addition, a lot of people find the thought of that amusing, but it can have a very destructive effect on relationships, I used to have a problem with this my wife helped me get through it using the method of 'get over it or get over me', I struggled with it but I managed to survive it, I came out of it a better person, but for a long time I struggled with it, it is normal to look at porn but it is easy to become obsessed with it, this was a very very interesting article that I was able to relate to very easily.
Well then, let the Anonymous Coward posting begin!
WARNING! The following message contains adult material and may offend you if you belong to any religious group or if you agreed entirely with Monty Python's song "Every Sperm Is Sacred."
I once heard a psychology professor say that 90% of men surveyed anonymously admit to masturbating. The other 10% are lying.
You can either agree with that or deny it, I don't care. But I would like to point out that this behavior has its advantages for society. Yes, that's right, I said advantages.
Young men are reaching sexual maturity before they're reaching mental maturity. The fact that many of them grow up in highly populated areas doesn't help. Oftentimes young parents without the resources or attitude to raise a child give birth and this subsequently results (usually) in an imperfect forced marriage or a child whose parents are not married. In either case, much more stress is placed on the developing youngster than the child needs and this can often lead down the road to delinquency or misbehavior.
There are also sexually transmitted diseases to worry about in the world. You usually don't catch anything from your hand.
Pornography functions as an alternative to fornication. And I'm talking about regular good old fashion hetero or homosexual adult (above 18) porn. Hardcopies (magazines and videos) of pornography seems risky. You have to store them and purchase them--they leave a paper trail. But internet pornography is accessible and can often be acquired for free. It doesn't leave such an obvious trail back to the user.
Yes, it's unhealthy to pass up healthy relationships for internet pornography but for young men (and probably women) who are prematurely sexually active, it probably acts as a safe alternative to non-monogamous relationships.
These are in no way scientific conclusions but it seems logical that many men would choose internet pornography to fill the sexual needs anyone who has testicles often develops.
Sorry to sound like Dr. Ruth but that's my thoughts on the subject. It doesn't bother me or make me feel gross or creepy that men all around are probably using internet pornography. It's just a safety valve for most of them and a better solution than being promiscuous.
Heck, looking at pr0n is "playing solitaire", if you know what I mean...
My sig is too lon
Most addictions are to do with internal emptiness And you'll definitely be empty with a hobby like pr0n. :)
Surveys within Great Britain have shown that more than a half of 9-19 years olds have seen pornography online.
And the other half are lying. Or producing pr0n online.
Surveys within Great Britain have shown that more than a half of 9-19 years olds have seen pornography online.
And the other half lied.
But seriously, what's with the title, "pr0n"? How old are we here? Call it porn, or don't talk about it at all.
Once they'd idly play solitaire; now they idly click on a porn site.
And for others, its just the reverse, porn has lost its luster for me, I play solitaire heavily now. Don't get me wrong, I still look at porn, but sometimes its just so boring.
It is good to know I am not the only addict!
Porn not bad. I can good still type.
Yeah those prawns are killers!
Surveys within Great Britain have shown that more than a half of 9-19 years olds have seen pornography online.
:)
Yes, I'd say that's believable.
But until you can look at porn while sitting on hold for tech support at work, it's just not the same.
No boom today. Boom tomorrow. There's always a boom tomorrow. - Cmdr. Susan Ivanova
Especially in Germany.
I'm still more than a little disturbed by the ch@1r pr0n :: ahref=http://www.furnitureporn.com/rel=url2html-22 377http://www.furnitureporn.com/> .
-=fshalor
The sole genetic purpose for our existence is breeding. We think about sex. A lot. We always have. We always will. There has always been porn. There always will be porn. From cave painting to 3d holographic renderings, we will reflect the human condition. Stop denying our nature and making it a bigger deal than it is. I remember first finding my dad's Swedish erotica on 8mm film. Future generations will survive whatever new technology brings and the worriers will have something new to fret over in their do-nothing do-gooder lives.
Surveys within Great Britain have shown that more than a half of 9-19 years olds have seen pornography online.
That's because approximately half of 9-19 year olds are male. Add in the fact that even women get penis enlargement emails, and bingo: we're at "more than half."
"Most addictions are to do with internal emptiness"
I'm addicted to life. Deep man. Deep.
I do not see how seeing pornography is a problem at all for our youth. While 9 may be a little too young, I definetly do not see the problem with 11 or 12 year olds viewing it.
We allow our children to see violent imagery everywhere, from our games to the news. But we are so violently against sexual imagery. I know that as a child I was much more curious about girls and sex before I finally discovered both pornography and masturbation. I was able to be a functioning male teenager because I did not need to be overly preocupied with sex.
Would you rather more children start having sex at the age of 12? Or would you rather them find some pornographic pictures online and spend some "quality" time alone in their bedroom once every few nights? Humans are wired to start having sex long before 18, so we either give them an outlet or start having alot more teen pregnancies.
--
-- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
Some of you slashdotters are too young to remember a time where instant pr0n wasn't available, and let me tell you it was the dark ages. Back in those olden days, you could only get pr0n through 2 methods ... a. buy it at a local book/magazine store or b. break into your uncle's cache. Now method a. would often invoke the unwanted stares of disgust from little old ladies in line and method b. could lead to an ass whooping.
In conclusion, online pr0n is the greatest thing since the discovery of fire.
I think this 'porn-addiction' thing isn't new, the fact you have it at your.. fingertips.. you can find anything you are looking for and most importantly:
It's usually free. Don't have to pay for it, and it's entirely private.
Is there really anything bad about young people interested in sex finding this stuff? I'd imagine it's more healthy tha drilling holes in walls, peeking through windos or trying to get into the girls changeroom.
However, now we have a completely different context. The prevalence of porn is amazing and so is its accessibility.
It is becoming very clear that teenagers are conducting themselves (sexually) in a very different way from their parents or even probably older siblings. The recent case of the (Georgia?) teen who was convicted of a sex crime that was videotaped is a good example of this. I'm not debating about whether or not he committed a crime--I'm just discussing it in the context of the video.
In the seventies we had makeout parties, sure, but it was really rare to have people taking their clothes off and having sex in the open, orgy-style; it obviously was even more rare to take photos or film it, since the technology to view those photos or films without them being developed outside the home was absent.
As with all stories with a porn theme, I've tagged this one with the tag "boobies". If you all do the same it will really help those of us who require our porn slashdot themes and can filter based on tags (When/if that goes live)
...It's a hobby. Once they'd idly play solitaire; now they idly click on a porn site. Others, though, succumb to addiction: Most addictions are to do with internal emptiness, wanting to fill up dead space, and addiction is always destructive.'
While most don't have the imagination to masturbate without the playboy channel.
What else can you download, rent, or pay-per-minute as well as porn on the internet? Hotmovies.com, for example has over 35,000 movies to choose from. Why doesn't BlockBuster offer something like this? iTunes is a step in the right direction, but I still can't watch recent releases of the shows or movies I like.
Marques Johansson
I enjoy solitaire also, but you must really enjoy it :)
My name is Wootzor von Leetenhaxor
There is no doubt that internet pornography has a negative effect on Society. I witness it daily.
This message is for you fellow customers of AceDSL: Stop all the downloads. I'm trying to play ET and you're killing my ping. You're not the only one with addictions you know.
If we have any hope of salvaging our society you must redeem yourselves! Remember, the first path towards salvation is moderation, so start rate limiting.
XJS*C4JDBQADN1.NSBN3*2IDNEN*GTUBE-STANDARD-ANTI-U
Surveys within Great Britain have shown that more than a half of 9-19 years olds have seen pornography online.
And 30 years ago, a survey probably would have shown that almost 100% of 9-19 yr olds had seen pronography at the local liquor store or in their big brother's room.
not that it has a great, full-color screen, WiFi and has an Internet browser -- but that you can use it one-handed!
... it's only because our society's attitude toward sexuality is morbid and ridiculous.
The idea that seeing a naked human being, or even seeing people having sex, would somehow "harm" a person is completely silly.
Thanks to the abhorrent way our society has rejected natural sexuality by demonizing it and calling it "dirty" it kind of make sense that exposure to it would cause "harm".
Kind of the way our society puts a forbidden stigma around alcohol consumption for people under the age of 21.
In many countries wine and beer are a normal part of life and young people are exposed to it accordingly. You don't typically see alcoholism problems or alcohol abuse in general in these countries.
In the United States, it's taboo. And anything taboo is simply irresistible to young people. The end result is a pattern of excess and abuse.
Sex and sexuality are not bad things. Can there be bad consequences to uncontrolled sexuality? Sure. Same goes for uncontrolled lawn mowing, or uncontrolled hand washing. The point is that if our society didn't make it taboo, normal exposure to it wouldn't be "harmful".
Obviously there are exceptions. Exposing a 6 year old to scenes of graphic rape fantasies would probably be a bad idea. But exposing that same child to a naked form won't harm them at all.
Think about this. What existed first? Sexual thoughts, or porn? (To paraphrase Bill Hicks.) Porn exists because humans have sexual thoughts, not the other way around. R.I.P. Bill.
.....too7o extciitd byy slishdit psost!@!
How to Download YouTube Videos
Just replace "pr0n" with "video games", "beer", "marijuana", etc. and you basically have the same story. It's what keeps politicians employed, and children safe supposedly.
Just about ANYTHING can be addictive, so vilifying porn as addictive is just blowing so much smoke. I've seen studies that claim exercise, jogging, gambling, video games, food, sex, etc. are all "addicting".
The issue is people who are susceptible to addiction will get addicted on whatever happens to be available be it porn or Everquest or chocolate or cigarettes.
I see porn as less damaging than gambling as there is so much free porn available there really isn't any reason to blow large chunks of cash on it. It is also less problematic than cigarettes, alcohol or drugs.
As far as damaging relationships, I don't see it as any more damaging that ANY addicted obsession. If some guy spends 6-8 hours a day on the computer playing WoW, he certainly is going to have relationship problems.
-Charles
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
Pron is not only an adiction it is ruining americas computers . I do a lot of format jobs at college . And I would say the number one reason that computers get screwed is from people trying to pirate porn on the gnutella 1 network ( mostly limewire ) PORN.EXE IS NOT WHAT YOU THINK IT IS !!!!!! God people are such noobs .
Wouldn't that be necrophilia?
wanting to fill up dead space
Precisely!!!
"Most addictions are to do with internal emptiness, wanting to fill up dead space...."
Well, I have filled up my hard drive.
Western Digital and Separate thank the porn industry.
Opinions on the Twiddler2 hand-held keyboard?
Slashdot > Porn
I look at porn and have since my early teens. My wife looks at porn (suicidegirls almost exclusively). All of my ex-girlfriends have been into porn, one of them even to the point of "making her own" (for herself only unfortunately!).
We also all drink alcohol. It doesn't mean we're alcoholics.
You know... to harvest the mounds of pr0n sites and organize them according to category.
And as everyone knows - solitaire is in no way addicting....
So, 50% of the 9-19 year olds have seen online porn.
How many of those have also seen porn magazines?
How does that compare to previous years?
I had definately seen porn mags by the time I was 19. If the same percentage of the population have seen porn, does it matter if it's online or printed?
Times HAVE changed.. I'm sure EVERYONE remembers walking into a drug store/pharmacy buying condoms... Everyone would just give you "the look". Now, they pass them out in 8th grade.
Everyone makes it sound like PORN is so evil. - When i say PORN I include all responsible gay/lesbian/straight type porn I'm not going to branch off into the weird (or illegal) content.
Personally, Porn has enhanced My marriage... Threw in some extra spice, maybe even a "lets try that".
People need to get over it, as a elected offical is passing a new bill against porn, hes going to his girl/boy friends house and bending him/her over. Time to wake up.
-- I Dont Deserve A Sig I Have Bad Karma
Nothing can compare with a young boy's imagination.
Innovation makes enemies of all those who prospered under the old regime... -- Machiavelli
As Jesus said: When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth [it] empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last [state] of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation. (from Matt 12)
My point here is, that porn addictions can only be overcome if somthing is used to replace it (specificly Christ). And porn is an addiction. I was there for awhile. And I still struggle with the temptation from time to time. But in reality people are only looking on the outside of the issue. The reality is that Satan has come to this earth to steal, kill and destroy (john 10:10). His goal is to destory a man (or woman) in whatever way possible. Weither that is though porn, drugs, or the occult doesn't really matter to him. As long as he can get one more soul to go to Hell, he is happy.
Okay, I'm ranting, I know. But I have to say this: Contrary to common view men are not animals. We have the ability to rule our minds and spirits. To be able to make a decision based on more than "what makes us feel good". The danger I see with porn is that it reduces the human race (and specificly women) to mere animals. We loose our dingnity. Life is more than sex. Marriage is more than sex, it is about a relationship. Porn causes us to view only the outside of a woman (or man) and no further.
Okay, flame if you want, but that's my view
Man is the lowest-cost, 150-pound, nonlinear, all-purpose computer system which can be mass-produced by unskilled labor.
"The White House is not an intelligence-gathering agency," -- Scott McClellan, Whitehouse spokesman.
"Most addictions are to do with internal emptiness, wanting to fill up dead space, and addiction is always destructive."
Can somebody explain this rationale in terms of coffee? I mean, I kind of get the first two, but the last one is a little hard to believe, given the extent of this particular addiction world-wide, and its incorporation into part of the work routine for a great many people.
"pr0n is not a drug, i use to suck dick for coke. Now that's an addiction man. you ever suck some dick for pr0n?"
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/31/13 47212
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
I'm sure the effects are better than rape, murder, and rampant violence does to people.
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
Will they next say Booze is bad for us and draft a constitutional amendment to ban it?
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Are there harmful effects from sex on the society? Far as i can tell there are none. Effects of p0rn on the society, i doubt that there are one.
From selective data comes selective resaults.
...just looking down at my pants now I can DEFINITELY see it has an effect on me. Speaking as a male of course. ;P
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
It's really not how pornography affects society, it's how society affects pornography. It's not as if we are being bombarded with porn from above, pornography is created because society demands it.
"when life gets complicated, I like to take a nap in a tree and wait for dinner" - Hobbes.
But somehow I don't believe him, I have heard of people who have ruined their marriage by becoming addicted to pr0n, some have been fired for looking at pr0n while at work. If that is not the behavior of an addict then I don't know what is. One definition of addiction states: "compulsion or overpowering urge to use a substance, regardless of potential or actual harm", most of the definitions imply that there has to be a substance involved, but in the case of pr0n the substances are the neurotransmitters in the brain.
In fact any activity that involves a powerfull release of certain neurotransmitters (serotonin, dopamin) into the pleasure centers of the brain can become "an addiction" -- it can be food, it can playing games, gambling etc.
Seriously, one post yesterday concerning porn, two today so far. Is it horny friday already?
... is that it reduces all parties involved to being nothing more than meat. Where is the person? I have a girlfriend who lives 3 states away, and I only get to see her every other weekend or so. We have been sexually active, and as such, it's more difficult when I can't see her as often as I'd like. Do I go looking up porn? Not at all... Heck, when I'm that randy and can't get it out of my system, I just call her up and talk dirty to her.
Anyway, my point is that people become sex objects when used in porn, and that's unavoidable really. You might as well be classifying them in the same genre as sex toys... When I start feeling desirous for the love of my life, it's because she's the love of my life, not because I've seen her naked.
I have to disagree. Sure, often it is, but not always.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
I know I did. I know that by the time I was 13, porn mags were easy to come by. Certainly it wasn't quite as accessible as it might be now, and in the UK all the mags were soft core, but it was there all the same.
Anyone here go to a male-dominated tech school full of the traditional asocial geeks that are afraid of girls? The abundance of porn on sharing networks at places like that is insane...... The sure way to up your share ratio on my college's hub is to share porn. My old roommate said whenever the HD light on his computer was blinking, someone was downloading porn. And let me tell you, it was blinking a good chunk of the time....
There's much more to life and human relationships than sexual expression. Don't get me wrong - I love that aspect of my life, and would not want to become celibate again - but are you really advocating that we provide kids with access to porn as a part of their developmental processes?
The appeal to the violence argument is ridiculous, too. Don't *add* porn, *remove* the violence! If that means that your kids (and you) end up watching less (or no) TV, and skip almost every movie, can you argue that you have been harmed in some way?
What about investing that time in relating to each other, playing board games, having conversations, investing in hobbies where you build or create things, or enjoy things created or performed by others?
Porn is a trap - it feeds the pleasure centers of the brain, devalues the humanity of the person being used for that pleasure, and damages people's ability to relate to one another in a healthy way. Real relationships are not self-focused, but must have a significant component of other-focus or they don't survive.
Are you really advocating that we train our kids that it's all about *them*!?!?
Please tell me you're trolling!
Respectfully,
Anomaly
But Herr Heisenberg, how does the electron know when I'm looking?
When you're done with that, we'll look further. But by the time we get people to agree what "porn" actually is, those 9 years olds are probably 90 year olds.
Honestly, what "bad, bad effect" can you see? That kids know how sex works? THE SHOCK! Well, that's the price you pay when you rely on your digital babysitter only to find out that it ain't that easy.
But since it's currently more in fashion to lock kids up instead of actually talking with them, I can forsee where this leads to.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Ah man... I need a stronger prescription on my glasses. Half way through reading these posts, everything got blurry.
I eat Karma for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. That's why I don't have any.
Guess what with the advocation of Home video porn, viewership skyrocketed from when it was just Theaters. Society (mostly religion) has put shame into the past time of masterbation and other related activities, as more private ways begin to exist, more people are able to follow their nature and use pornography for its "god" given purpose, to keep society from killing each other in frustration.
Most of the "problems" generated by pornography are actually problems with society/religion. If it is a problem in your marriage, you aren't using it right, or you married the wrong woman/man.
In my opinion, in most cases when someone is saying someone is "addicted" to masterbation it is more like saying they are addicted to urinating. Masterbation is a way to equalize your DESIRE for sex with your OPPORTUNITY for it, often times in my life I have had a girlfriend and participated in regular intercourse, while still masterbating more than most people (it is called adolescence).
My parents even sent me to councling for a pornography addiction?!?! meanwhile I was leading a full life and consuming far less time with pronography than say video games, television, or eating. Society has created this problem of perception and now they are finding out that this "condition" effects most people... duh.
Most people yawn on a regular basis, I bet this is a widespread epidemic of degeneration.
(9/10) It's likely to be true, but then again, it should be natural that people like to be sexually stimulated. Sex is a billion year old evolution and stimulation allows for the survival of a species, especially in higher level creatures.
Again, Pron isn't necessarily bad, it's the manner and the purpose. But really, I don't care about what people do in their own time to themselves so long as it does not negatively affect anyone else. But that's not likely to be the view or opinion of "politicions" in the british gov't. Already, the british gov't has almost as much control of people's web access as the Chinese gov't. I can only expect the british government will try to use articles such as this to curtail the freedoms of their subjects. However, I'm not saying articles like this should not be published. I think studies of human behavior and habits makes for better understanding of the human race, but I hope the study doesn't become a tool for politicians to strip their constituents of their freedoms.
it depends on what you are looking for and what you are addicted to. if you are addicted to the "risk" of being "caught" looking at "normal" porn, it is different than being addicted to, say, images of paedophilic porn themselves.
MORTAR COMBAT!
We merely lived on farms and saw horses, steer/cows, rams/sheep, ducks, chickens, dogs, cats doing it all the time.
...
Same thing, only not human.
Of course, acting on such things is now illegal in my state (Washington). And we all know that once you pass a law, noone will ever think of doing such things or violate the laws, right?
Now where's the irony key on my keyboard, think it's next to the hypocritical society key I should have used after reading the WSJ editorial about how evil High Hefner is/was
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
A world without pr0n?
What else am I supposed to do on the long flight from Ogrimmar and Gadgetzan?
Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. -- Carl Sagan
"I am fairly sure that if they took porn off the internet, there would only be one website left, and it would be called 'bring back the porn'"
-Dr. Cox (Scrubs)
Yeah, uh huh. I am guessing the she has never headed down to the book store and checked out the "romance novel" section.
So-called romance novels are nothing more than porn for women. It has been in western culture for decades and it breeds unrealistic expectations of men in women.
Of course, no one has every really studied that because it is just words, not pictures. But, take a look at the story arc of just about every romance novel. Look at the characters. Examples:
"Porn for women" has been around as long and been more widely available than "porn for men", yet no one complains, does studies, or even talks about it. But, that is ok because porn for women isn't pictures, it is words. And, we all know that reading books and stories doesn't effect the thoughts and minds of people unless there are pictures, right?
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
I wonder how many of the people in here agree. Would you like to see some of the "actresses" do this or that, and are dissatisfied because they don't exactly do as you'd like them to?
Keeps angry guys from ramming you with their car or knocking someone's head in, keeps marriages together because the guy can "cheat" with his computer instead of another woman, is good for the economy, etc. It obviously fills a need in our sexually repressed country, and I bet a lot more problems would be created than solved if porn were wiped out or too restricted.
What if we ignore 18 and 19 year olds?
.xxx domain for, however adults viewing it is none of our concern. It's their right, shut the fuck up about it. Thus to include young adults in with children is just not useful, and the only reason I can see is to try and bias a statistic that the researchers didn't like.
The reeks of a delibratly skewed statistic. I mean why would one pick that particular age range? Why would you include 18 and 19 year olds, who are adults in every country I'm aware of, with teens and children?
The reason is most likely that if you narrow the paramaters to 9-17 year olds, you find that the number who have viewed porn drops significantly. Of course the idea is to try and generate outrage "OMG t3h childrens are viewing t3h porn!!! Ban it!!!!!" This leaves the reader with the impression that "half of all children have viewed porn." However the reality might be something more along the lines of "10% of children 9-17 and more than 50% of 18-19 years olds have seen porn online."
How many children get access to pronography is a concern, at least when they do so without parental permission, though not one that we should mandidate filtering or something liek a
To some men, Haynes argues, clicking on porn is simply a way to pass the time. It's a hobby. Once they'd idly play solitaire; now they idly click on a porn site. Others, though, succumb to addiction: Most addictions are to do with internal emptiness, wanting to fill up dead space, and addiction is always destructive.
Christ, can't a guy just want to whack off any more?
Just remember the next time you download a video that it was probably the internet porn industry that has a big hand in making that technology available to the masses...
...but Al Gore might still take the credit for it.
Without porn the internet would not be where it is today.
sorry..., I had to throw that last part in there somewhere.
If this isn't news for nerds, I don't know what is.
If you truly have an addiction to this "problem" our society faces I offer you THE CURE. Simply put, I reccommend walking in on your parents. Your porn fantasies will be instantly be erased due to the incessant thought of the flexibility of your mother being forever emblazened into your frontal lobe.
Unless they have some normalising mechanism, that is.
Many years ago there was a report into the violent films kids have seen. They seemed to have seen a lot. Then they added some fake movie titles as well. Kids had seen a lot of them too.
> wanting to fill up dead space
Ok, now that's gross. I didn't know necrophilia was that big a problem.
- For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat
I've read most of TFA and some of the posts from "It really is an addiction!" folks, and one common theme I'm seeing is that they all classify pornography as pretty much all being the same, usually mentioning hardcore/BDSM/body modification stuff liberally throughout, possibly aiming for shock value. Aside from the classic question put before SCOTUS of "What is pornography, anyway?" why does it seem that most of the people complaining about porn's effect on people seem to be equating, say, Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction with goatse or tubgirl?
Not the soft porn but the hardcore underworld sick shit one sees on the p2p networks and more. That stuff for people who are vulnerable and open to "suggestion" and easily influenced are at risk from these kind of images. If exposed to this kind of imagery for long periods (years) the "shock" effect of them wears off and it becomes the normal. This is the danger of such prolonged extreme exposure.
This internet porn stuff isn't just "consumed" by boys and men. I know of several women (in the teen-to-20s) including my last girlfriend who were avid fans of internet porn. Sometimes it's the stories and softcore, but yes there are plenty of women who enjoy the hardcore too. And trust me it gives everyone more to "work with" no matter what equipment ya got.
I do know women who, like the men described in the article, will idly browse for porn to pass the time. Some like it very much (I call these 'awesome women' and am seeking them).
How would this be different if the addiction was to something else, like Dungeons and Dragons?
This need to be addicted is what needs to be addressed, not the object of the addiction (esp. when there is no physical addiction, like there is with, say, cocain)
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
Porn is interesting because it is a virtual reality based on actual recorded events. One has the option of peering into any number of staged bedroom encounters. Perception and experience are transformed into their voyeuristic counterparts, and it feels fantastic.
:: http://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s1340vid.html.
Check out "Videodrome" by the legendary Davy Cronenberg
That crack-whore welfare mama with 18 children is more fit evolutionary wise than the lonly artist who creats beautifull paintings but kills himself due to depression before breeding.
Actually darwinian fitness measures not just how much you reproduce but rather the ability for your offspring to reproduce. I am not really focusing on your example, but I wanted to point it out because most people think it is just a measure of how much you reproduce. The fitness of your children (whether they are healthy and can then reproduce well themselves) is what is important.
A long time ago, in the early seventies, politicians in several countries were concerned enough about pornography to commission studies to see just what was going on. These studies were commissioned in the USA, UK, Canada, and Denmark. There may have been others. In 1972 the President's Commission on Pornography issued its report, now nearly impossible to obtain (lots of good pictures), detailing thirty studies of the effects of pornography. 29 studies showed no correlation between pornography and aberrant behaviors, i.e.: crime. The Commission therefore recommended that laws against pornography be abolished. Though the study was commissioned before his term of office, Nixon was President at the time, and he totally rejected the conclusions of the study. The same conclusions were reached by the studies in the UK, Canada and Denmark. Canada and the UK reacted similar to the US. Denmark did not. Instead, they took the study results at face value and de-criminlaized pornography.
Then an odd thing happened. Within a single year sex-related crimes in Denmark went DOWN over 60%! See: "The effect of easy availability of pornography on the incidence of sex crimes: The Danish experience" Journal of Social Science, Vol 29:3 (1973), pp. 163-181. For a fuller accounting see "Porn Alley: Now at your local public library," by yours truly. Computers in Libraries, Vol 19:10, November-December, 1999, pp. 32-35. This may be available online.
There was a second commission on pornography in the US headed up by attorney general Meese. They had half the amount of money over ten years later, meant a few times, had some public meetings, went to some adult bookstores, and concluded that porn was bad. The history of this farscical commission is a real hoot to read. The commissioners in this case claimed exposure to pornography was damaging, but their year-long exposure to such somehow unaffected them. I wish I could cite the book that details this, but darned if I can find it. If only I had the software slashdot talked about a couple of days ago....
Now, if you have a moralistic issue about pornography, that is still valid, so all the folks who are posturing about porn treating women as objects and how unfair nature was to wire men and women differently, and how God doesn't like it, well, you just go for it. But if you're talking in scientific terms, the evidence would suggest that pornography does not create more crime, but it does create less crime. Nearly every study done suggests that is true and a whole country has proven it in real time. If you're going to assail the scientific evidence, you're going to have to do a lot more than just voice your opinion. That's not to say that a big political uproar cannot be made by rousing the ignorance and moral outrage of the populace, but the entire issue is based on nonsense.
How about a moderation of -1 pedantic.
There's an interesting story today that says that 90% of women in Brittain still think that one night stands are immoral and deviant, and that younger respondents were more vocal with their opinions than older ones.
The whole Hot Coffee thing was absurd, and an excellent example of how out of step with the rest of the world the United States is. The US is a very conservative nation, overall. And it will never get any better, it's sort of like inbreeding in a way. We have a very closed world view due to the fact most Americans have very little day to day interaction with people from other countries. The word xenophobic comes to mind.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
After the proliferation of the Internet, various shady characters have created web sites to facilitate the sale of sex by women of a variety of ages from many countries. The sex acts that are sold explicitly degrade both men and women. Brace yourselves and check out myRedbook.
We Slashdotters do joke a lot about porn (or p0rn), but the scum at myRedbook goes beyond the pale. Let's use our skills to defeat myRedbook.
I grew up in a Catholic family. Anything to do with sex, affection or the human body was treated as the work of the devil. When the bikini came out it was treated like trash. Sex education was non-existant. By the time I got out of highschool and left home I could no more put my arm around a women than I could chop it off with an ax. All of my feeble attempts to have a relationship with a women have been failures and I often think about killing myself as a result. I say take all of the self-righteous people that fear and hate sex and throw them into the ocean.
I completely agree. However, you clearly haven't seen any modern pornography. It's not just naked human beings. It's guys cumming on womens faces saying, "Take that bitch, want some more?" This kind of material can be very harmful to kids. It provides for a horrendous role model that some children adopt and it causes a number of problems in their ability to develop relationships with the opposite sex. It warps their ideas of love and sex.
I think this is a very good point. Look, I have literally hundred of gigabytes of porn on my computer and boxes of DVDs and video tapes so I'm not an anti-porn guy by any stretch of the imagination. But there is an entire genre of porn ('gonzo') where the sex is almost a side effect of the attempt to degrade the woman. With names like "Fuck Pigs Vol. 7", "Animal Trainer", and "Slap Happy" these films give a very warped idea of sexual relations. Hell, the "Bang Bus" series features guys picking up strange chicks in their van with the promise to give them a lift to their home/work/etc., fucking them in the backseat while filming it, and then dumping them off in the middle of nowhere and laughing as they drive away. I have also seen clips where the women are moaning or grunting in pain because of the violentness of what's happening to them.
You couple all this with the fact that parents don't want to talk with their kids about sex at all and you end up with some potential problems. Adults can deal with this material fine and not have it affect them. Whether developing minds can do the same is not at all clear to me.
Be patriotic:
Call 1-800-ALQ-AEDA and demand an end to WAR.
Thanks for playing,
Kilgore Trout, M.D.
After reading the article, I have just changed my sig.
GENERATION 25: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation. Social exper
Uh, some of these arguments are forgetting something: Kids, in general, are instinctively curious, and will be drawn AUTOMAGICLY to anything that the grown-ups want to hide from them! Don't any of the old fogey's in /. remember themselves or their friends smoking for the first time solely because they thought it was cool to do so because all the grown-ups didn't want them doing it?
We keep banning, hiding, locking and securing stuff from our children and simply ignoring or being blind to the fact that this builds the desire and curiosity in the children to want & do that forbidden thing more.
...is that it's filling up 98% of my hard drive!!
--
Society has traditionally always tried to find scapegoats for its problems. Well, here I am.
Yeah it's not like any of this is new. What really irritates me is that while saying that addiction is about filling some internal emptiness they infer that easy access to pornography is a problem. No, the internal emptiness is the problem, and people will fill it with video games, porn, crack, sex or whatever else. People who are prone to addictive behavior are prone to addictive behavior regardless the source. There are things that are genuinely physically addictive like hard drugs, etc, but the only reason porn is even thrown in here is because it's seen as "naughty". If somebody was addicted to excercise for example, nobody would think twice about it because it's sociall acceptable. It's only because it's nekkid people that there's an article about it.
This sig has been temporarily disconnected or is no longer in service
But somehow I don't believe him, I have heard of people who have ruined their marriage by becoming addicted to pr0n, some have been fired for looking at pr0n while at work.
You know, it's always possible that those marriages failed because of something else and that porn was just a convenient scapegoat. If a woman truly feels loved and treasured, she ain't gonna care a whole hell of a lot of hubby wants to wack off to some bimbo with balloon-like tits getting cummed on. Similiarly, I can't imagine a company laying off their top programmer just because he routinely checks out porn while at work. Porn is such a taboo in our society that it becomes a wonderful excuse for disillusioned wives or employers to use in justifiying terminating a relationship.
Most addictions are to do with internal emptiness, wanting to fill up dead space, and addiction is always destructive. Yep, that's the best explanation I've seen so far for why people read and post to slashdot!
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
What's the with spurt (pun intended) of these relevant articles in the last few days?
does it matter if it's online or printed?
I'd say it does in terms of the amount. If you buy a Playboy/Penthouse, they're maybe 100 pages, perhaps 50-70 of actual porn, at most. So there's at least some limit. Even if you buy a handful of magazines, there's no way you're going to get more than, say, 200 pictures.
At least with the magazines, there's the cost of printing the actual paper, so there's at least some limit to how much porn you can get. Online, the cost of bandwidth is negligible, so there's really no unit cost of any sort. You can spend hours and hours viewing porn, and new porn is being loaded onto the internet faster than you can look at it. With all purposes, you can conveniently view an unlimited amount of porn.
And that's where the problem starts.... unlimited.
Partial Credit: The Engineer's Best friend
"Well, the bridge didn't fall all the way down!"
"I think the most wonderful thing a man could offer a woman on their wedding night is the assurance that he has never lusted over another woman in his life."
So you want men to lie to their new brides then?
"The government grants you rights, not the other way around."-- beav007. Yes, these people really exist...
An example of mods not understanding contemporary American slang. 'Shit', when used with an indefinate article (a), is a derogatory term, which might deserve -1: Troll, but with the definate article (the), it's actually a good thing. A popular singer might be 'the shit', whereas an annoying individual might be called 'a shit'.
This isn't trolling - this is praise of pornography. One might make a case for it being off-topic, since this is about the effect of pornography, not the content, but more likely, it's just an unsupported statement, which should just sit at 0 or 1, instead of being modded down for trollery.
is addiction, not porn. Or at least it should be. But porn is much more...how should I say...stimulating?
What?
Pretty much all addictions lead to isolation, depression, and inability to communicate. Porn addiction is actually better than most other common addictions- it doesn't destroy your body like drugs, or destroy your finances like gambling- but it is easier to get into because it is cheap; All you need is an internet connection. Because of this, I think porn will become the #1 addiction in the United States (if it isn't already).
(Side note: most people who look at porn are not addicts, just like most people who drink beer aren't alcoholics. )
You are reading a copy of my copyrighted post.
This a Freudian canard. Addiction is a neurochemical phenomenon; that's not to say that some sort of therapy might not be helpful in repairing the damage caused by the addiction, but there is simply no evidence that "emptiness" is at the root of addiction.
By family friendly, I don't mean incest!! So just stop it.
Seriously though, some people have made good points about the graphic, degrading nature of porn today...Would there be a market then for explicit, hard core pornography, that was also instructional and did not promote degradation or extremism. It might also feature people who look real instead of people who obviously look like porn stars.
Just a thought...course, now that I say that, it's probably already out there.
Over the last 15 years online, I have gathered on the order of 15,000 pornographic pictures (and about 100 movie clips), which I fondly peruse whenever I feel the urge to masturbate (on the order of 3-4 times a day - one of my jobs is by telecommuting, and I often celebrate a good breakthrough by masturbating - yes, at home, I work naked). No girlfriend or wife would ever tolerate such intense sollicitation, hence the desirability of promoting masturbation as a good diversion from sexual assault.
Masturbating is an excellent stress reliever, and it allows to expell sexual tension in a harmless way.
Online pr0n is an excellent way to explode one's sexuality, and, more importantly, to find out that you are not that much abnormal because you have that very wierd fetish.
Over the years, while I gathered pr0n, I came in contact with other fetishes, and I managed to find out that I had fetishes I would not have thought about (like running shoes [those fashionable wrestling boots are totally irresistible!!!], tight athletic clothing, nude sunbathing and underwater sex).
Better yet, by irregularly perusing sexual chat/message groups, I was able to meet other people sharing some fetishes and experience them (note to interested parties: I have yet to experience underwater sex), something I would never have been able to do without the Internet; who knows what the repressed frustration would have lead me to???
Likewise, I have been able to counsel other people about fetishes and off-the-beaten-path sex practices.
No, only stupid religious busybodies would say that online pr0n is bad. And like anything that someone gets addicted to, it's not because one person cannot control himself that you have to ban the stuff.
If people were more open to casual yet safe sex, everyone wouldn't be locked indoors alone, and would be locked indoors with company. (probably still watching a little)
emptiness? or something like this...
I heard this awhile back, don't know the source. But, it's become my favorite new saying:
Finding porn on the internet is like finding hay in a haystack.
Sad but true.
Beware of geeks bearing formulas.
As long as it's not perverted and has midget tentacles.
'Once scientists, even the dim-witted social scientists, get muzzled, the Western Civilization is finished.' - oldhack
...no no no It it the fitness of your childrens childerns children...(n) that is what counts.
So I think you will find that most biologists tend to just say how many childern you produce.
Excellent point. If I have 100 children, but only one survives, I'm not particularly "fit" evolutionarily.
Evolution is a long term thing. It may be that big brains and reproductive restraint are counterproductive in the long-run. It could also be that slow and steady wins the race. Me, I've got my two kids and plan on investing huge amounts of time in making them prepared for the world.
I'm more interested in how poorly the age demographic question was designed in the survey. From the article, it makes it sound like they had a question like:
What is your age? (Choose One)
- 8 or under
- 9 to 19
- 20 to 29
etc.
It's a fairly rediculous to assume that you can draw any age related statistical conclusions from the sample using this question. But then again, I've seen some pretty poorly designed surveys. (I should know, I make survey software for a living, and my wife is a market researcher.)
Now, if the age demographic question was a fill in the blank, where the user directly typed in the response, this study would have some more weight to it. As it is, I find that situation unlikely.
"Leet speaks influence on news sites."
350+ posts and no good links!?
I find it unfathomable to see how pictures of mating is destructive? Nobody complains about nature documentaries. The only thing 'bad' about depictions of reproduction or intimacy is what society dictates. That we find pictures of people reproducing offensive completely baffles me.
Now if people have a problem with regulating their own behavior that is a problem, but I fail to see how anyone else is responsible for that.
Thanks. That was most interesting.
i'm not joking
it all depends upon how you view human nature: are we born empty vessels of purity and innocence that are subsequently damaged and deranged and perverted?
or, as i believe, are we born seething cauldrons of violence and perversion, that is tamed and harnessed by society into socially acceptable channels of expression?
to prove my point of view, i present to you an average 3 year old toddler
watch them behave for 3 minutes: cruelty, violence, selfishness, etc.
case closed, i win
in such a reality, what porn represents is expression of excess sexual desire in safe harmless ways
that is, asocially expressed: porn is catharthis, safe catharsis. we all have these asocial sexual impulses, and if we have no outlet for them, they build up until they find expression socially, in socially unacceptable ways: rape, overt sexual aggression, guys in trenchcoats with no pants on, etc.
in such a respect, porn servers a useful societal function: what would otherwise be expressed on an innocent woman in unwanted and/ or violent ways is instead expressed harmlessly on a computer keyboard
therefore, i say, in dead seriousness, that we as a society should embrace the availability of porn as something that reduces rape and unacceptable sexual behavior
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Main page content:
Not tonight darling, I'm online
By Adrian Turpin
Published: March 31 2006 15:19 | Last updated: March 31 2006 15:19
I am sure there are some beneficial aspects of porn. The author of this article seems to assume it is all negative or that the negatives outway the positives. And porn has never been scientifically proven to harm kids. In countries like the Netherlands where there are no age restrictions on porn they have lower crime rates and lower child abuse rates, so explain that. Lastly, opposition to porn is totally a religious issue and without merrit. Go ahead and cover your kids eyes at the monkey exibit at the zoo, they don't want to see you looking either.
Go get "them"
You know -them- the "ones" responsible for all societies ill's.
Just use your -imagination- it will tell you who -they- are.
You don't even need to know -them-
Just imagine the "VoiD" being filled with good wholesome... .
From the article:
The Washington Post reported that the online porn business was worth $2.5bn a year, compared with just $1.1bn for music downloads.
There is a 2.5 billion dollar industry for assisted masturbation.
I'd say the effect on society is more people getting off. That's less wound up lunatics out there killing people because lets face it, no matter how bad your day, would you ever even consider killing someone after an orgasm?
Pr0n = less violence. We could use a lot more really...
You can get 15 minutes of fame, but you can go down in history for infamy.
Upon returning from a night out with my wife, I discovered that her younger brother (13 at the time) had been surfing porn on my computer. Now, I'm not uptight about such things, and to be honest if it were only boobs and butts, I very likely wouldn't have said a word about it. When I was a teenager, getting my hands on a Playboy or Penthouse was the most extreme porn that was readily available and they satisfied the basic curiosity of a young man. But, now with the InterWeb, it's straight to "Anal University" and "Hardcore, deep-throating grandmothers". There is absolutely zero escalation. It used to take years before a person became so desensitized that it took seeing a woman with her arm up a Donkey's ass to the elbow in order to get arroused. Now, with the internet, you can go straight from innocent and curious to downright filthy and jaded in 15 minutes.
The scary thing is that he was savvy enought to try to cover his tracks, but didn't do a very good job. Now, he has to suffer through the ask Mom for a password with every new website, slow as molasses, content protection filter that I installed on his computer...if only he would have stuck to boobs and butts, he would still be happily wanking away...but thats almost impossible online.
http://www.JournalOfTheRandom.com
I can only expect to get flamed for this comment, especially given my nickname, but I'm really sick and tired of how the Slashdot community (as any internet community would) almost universally reacts to any and all evidence that pornography might be *gasp* a bad thing with a combination of rationalization and equivication.
It's not that I actually disagree with some of the coutnerpoints that are made. Porn probably has had a significant impact on bringing us broadband. Some people have little or no problem with porn. But the general tone strikes me as annoying because it's obvious to me that the vast majority of you guys are not actually trying to discuss the issue: you're trying to excuse/justify your behavior in the face of overwhelming evidence that pornography - like smoking (as an example) is bad for people and bad for society. Or you're just dismissing a rather well-researched article because you don't like the conclusion.
The most obnoxious claim I hear is that "every male looks at porn". I'm sorry - but they all don't. I don't. I never have. I'm 24, I'm happily married, and I've just never looked. According to most of you (especially the ones that like porn the most, in my experience) this is because religion has warped my brain. Whatever - I'm hardly in a position to prove that I'm sane over the internet (and by definition I'm not 'normal' in this aspect of my behavior). I'm not the only one either. I have other friends (not all of them Mormon) who have similarly never looked at porn.
Look, if you think this is some "holier than thou" preach-fest, you're missing the point. My point is just this: knock it off with the "everybody does it" routine. Most people do. A lot don't. Whether or not 66% or 75% ot 95% or 99% of males look at porno should have nothing to do with 1 - whether it's a good thing or a bad thing 2 - whether you do it or don't.
Final point: not looking at porno doesn't mean you're not interested in sex. Nor is it a form of ascetism. There's a little something that makes us human: rational self control. Animals mate based on sheer biology. They eat based on sheer biology. Humans are biological creatures. We have the same essential urges. But what makes us human is the capacity not to bash in someone's skull when they really piss us off, not to eat to the point of becoming morbidly obese, and (in this case) not to go stare at pics/vids of porn whenever we feel sexual drives. Just because we don't fight everyone that pisses us off doesn't mean we don't feel anger. Just because we know how to control our weight/health doesn't mean we don't experience hunger or enjoy food. And just because we don't look at porno doesn't mean we don't have sexual urges and enjoy sex.
-stormin
The Southern Baptist Convention has creationism. On Slashdot, we have porn.
I don't have the slashdot member facts to support this, but I presume that based on the level of content here, most people are over the age of 16 and have at least somewhat developed their sexual identities already, or have already passed through puberty and are launched fully or partially into adulthood, so it is understandable to have a very laissez fair approach to internet pornography, but I don't think many of you are looking at the whole issue here. The question isn't whether or not you think porn is damaging you.
When the majority of us were growing up, porn was a Playboy, Penthouse or Hustler stolen from some Dad's stash somewhere, all of which are sexual, but non-fetish magazines and were generally not accessible throughout the day.
Now, internet access is ubiquitous and more and more children have computers in non-public areas of the house for personal use. This, coupled with most parents ignorance of content filtering means that there is a neverending stream of new porn readily accessible to a majority of children today. Sitting one click away from the generic porn is S&M, animal, scat, you name it it's there content.
Not being 9 years old, nor a child psychologist, I have no idea what the effect of having all of this so readily accessible is; perhaps our sexual behavior is so hardwired that even at that age it won't have any effect, or perhaps our development is still in progress previous to going through puberty and having a torrent of porn at your fingertips really effects you and how you view the world. But, good or bad, Like it or not, this is not the same childhood porn experience that most of us knew and it bears study because of the age and depth of exposure that our children have today.
Of course it's worth mentioning that these kinds of studies would be less threatening if parents would educate themselves and at least do the minimum to protect their children. But as usual, asking for responsibility out of the general parent population is like pissing in the wind. Most would rather cry to the government, the school system, or a lawyer about how we need new laws and regulations to do their jobs for them when they read these kinds of studies.
Who in the right mind would surf pr0n while bored? AFK.... Like... it's just a ridiculous notion that such a thing occurs. BRB. Anyways, I think it's totally full of crap! I'll uh... be back later...
It isn't that pornography is inherently bad. It's what Michael is saying above. Just like any other addiction, those of us who become addicted cannot break out of the cycle he describes.
However, unlike alcoholism, an addiction to pornography is not socially accepted. I go to church where a number of the members are in AA and humbly relate their recovery process. The fact of the matter is that people don't look at porn addicts who are in recovery the same way.
Hope those of you dealing with this addiction like me can find some good help!
TFA says 70% of Adult American men view pr0n on the internet. Entirely plausible--I buy it. But what I cannot understand is how when 70% of any population do anything, naysayers continue to call it aberrant or a 'problem' instead of recognizing that it has become the norm. Go read a little Durkheim, people.
And as an aside, a person could ask the question, 'so for all these women who are upset that their partner is looking at porn, would they rather their partner slept around on them instead?'
Why didn't you guys tell me!
Yeah, I tried giving it up too. But no matter how hard I tried I always find myself going back to eating again. There's obviously a big media cover up. I suspect that at least 90% of the people I know eat food and can't give it up. But do you ever read news stories about how addictive it is?
"The White House is not an intelligence-gathering agency," -- Scott McClellan, Whitehouse spokesman.
Now, being a male myself, I can't speak for all the women out there, but I would bet good money that if you really knew what went through their minds it would be the female version of the above scenario. This is the way it is, but I continue to be stunned that it is never discussed, never seen as a basis for the way we interact or as a "rationalization" for behavior such as viewing porn. Modern society has almost made it a crime to have thoughts like this, so we instead sublimate them by looking at porn or watching stupid crap like "Desperate Housewives".
Anyone care to comment, I'd be interested to hear what your REAL thoughts are!
Wow, I think the slashdot crowds interest in this subject is a testament to its importance.
I recall having an overwhelming curiosity as a kid. To this day I still think it was bordering on fringe. Growing up in a christian home, it was my understanding that porn was not something I should dabble with. Did that make me want it more? YES!
I think at first I just had to SEE the act. Sure I knew what it entailed, but that deep male visual centered psyche had to SEE it. The REAL thing. Fast forward a few years, add household internet access and all of a sudden I find myself interested in it not because it's real, but because it's NOT real! Women don't DO ass to mouth, or get choke-fucked to tears/vomit. That's CRAZY! It's horrible and demoralizing to everyone involved and... SO AWESOME!
.... and now my mind is screwed beyond reproach. I value sexual purity in marriage and such images dancing around my head impact me in a way I wouldn't have thought... I knew it would be bad, but I'm recovering (thanks to an understanding wife and friends).
I've totally forgotten my point now... oh well. Nice to vent. As for comparing it to watching violence? let's put it this way... I wouldn't think about slitting the guy in the next cube's throat near as much as I'd think about splitting the cute new summer student in two. Maybe if all porn was soft and vanilla... but unfortunately we are animals who will pay to see more. So it is automagically made available.
Note: This sig contains nine S's, nine I's and five O's which... means absolutely nothing.
None of your offspring would survive, that is why they must produce offspring, and so on.
So, before, a Solitaire addiction turned to gambling, and now a Pr0n addiction turns to looking at free Pr0n?
That seems like an improvement.
/oversimplified and loving it!
the internet is for porn
7 5335461822&q=internet+for+porn&pl=true/
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-56816822
the above video is absolutely hillarious. check it out
...it's just like slashdot?
I've never read any studies on porn or anything, but I have at least observed it's effects on my own life... and I noticed that these umm... "cycles" that I have (where I don't watch for a few days, then do watch) actually DOES effect the way I behave in society. I believe watching and er 'gratifying' does change the chemical balance in the brain. I have no idea what these chemicals are but it does seem to affect the thought process. Of course we all feel relaxed and at ease afterwards, but how do you feel the next day, and how does it affect your own subconscious and how you act around the opposite sex? I'm sure the effects are different with different people, but I have noticed a distinct lack of self confidence and increase in timidity the day after gratification. What worries me worse is that our bodies are always releasing pheromones, and these may 'change' when we are sexually active- and while my findings in my own life are anything but conclusive, I suggest you yourselves begin to observe your thought process and behavior after watching- I think you may be suprised what you find.
...Yes, and some of those romance novels use the word "fundament" way too liberally.
-- thinkyhead software and media
"Internal Emptiness"???
I dare you to say a more meaningless phrase. Addiction is a result of artificial stimulation of parts of the brain, causing dependence of some sort. The most addictive substances also change the structure of the brain in a way which prevents normal activity from stimulating the same are of the brain the drug effects. This is the one-two punch of addiction. You become accustomed to over-stimulation of your pleasure centers, and you become unable to attain normal stimulation without the drug.
If you gave heroin to Jesus every day for a month he would be a hardcore addict at the end of that month. Pseudo-psychological nonsense need not apply.
Now, as for why people would choose to eat/inject addictive chemicals, there are many reasons.
The primary factor is availability. Very few people would go out of their way to get heroin if they weren't addicted previously.
Other factors are boredom, sudden affluence (such as rock stars), etc.
Another cause is an attempt to self-medicate, that is to say suppress unpleasant thoughts and emotions by chemically changing ones mental state. This is a major factor leading people to take a drug, but it is not the cause of addiction any more than being hungry is the cause of a heart attacks.
All of these factors are merely the reasons people start taking drugs. Once you start taking it, the addiction and downward spiral are completely a chemical phenomenon inside the brain, and no feeling of emptiness or lack of feeling of emptiness, even if that meant something, could change this.
wow i was saying that exact same thing yesterday. its all in the mind. definately mod this dude up
I'll just use my special getting high powers one more time...
. . . you only needed access under your parents' bed to view Dad's pr0n.
Now you need to hack his password.
What?
Not even vaguely true. Addiction is only considered a problem when it's destructive. The way our body chemistry works, we also become addicted to sex and exercise. Both of these are exactly what nature intended, and generally have very productive results (in some case reproductive results).
Once agian, someone is using bad science and scare tactics to try to frighten people about something that they don't like. I haven't read the article, but I suspect that somewhere along the line the person is proposing legislation.
Wake up - the future is arriving faster than you think.
According to the internet filter company N2H2, its database of pages identified as pornography grew from 14 million in 1998 to 260 million in 2003, a 1,800 per cent increase.
Never mind that the number of internet hosts rose 960% over the same period (mid 1998 to mid 2005). Never mind finding out what total internet traffic did over that same period.
"We reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals." --The American President (20.1.2009)
There's one well articulated post.
Quem a paca cara compra, paca cara pagará.
I dunno, I agree addiction is generally a symptom of an underlying issue, some people just need something to fill part of their lives and when they find something, fill their lives with it, be it drugs, or religion, or games, or porn....or slashdot. I had to add that... I just had to!
in the meanwhile...woa this form feild is FUCKED UP in Solaris' Netscape.
and there's no submit button. wtf. yet another browser I can't use with slashdot now. (first lynx, then elinks, then safari, then dillo, now netscape??) Then again considerring the subject matter, mabye I should be thankful?
Ideally I'd like to get more addicted(in the sense of this thread) to math. I used to be, once. When the only alternative to math was working fulltime as a dishwasher (since my computers weren't really capable of doing anything interesting programmingwise, at least with my skill level, and I didn't yet have a piano).
I think I'm going to make that my goal for today: seek out math enablers. Thank you kind sir
GENERATION 26: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation.
Excellent on topic read.
Devil bunnies! I snort the nose! Lucifer! Banana! Banana!
After doing the RTFA thing, it struck me that I'd heard all the same arguments about destructive, addictive behavior before.
The difference was that the previous round of alarm concerned television viewing.
I shudder to think what happens if you watch porn on TV.
Delete your wow account, smash the disks, and for god sakes STOP MAKING FEMALE NIGHT ELF CHARACTERS!!!!!!!!! :)
Ira
"Just grab your dick and double click" http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-444698155 4735098778
9-19 isn't a very good range of ages to be surveying. There's nothing wrong with 18 or 19 years olds viewing "pr0n". Heck, even 16-17 years olds are somewhat ready for sex.
Puberty and the related "urges" set in usually around 12 to 13 year old mark, so of course that age range and up is very likely to be curious enough to want to view pr0n.
It's the inclusion of 9 to 11-12 year olds that I find disturbing in this study. I don't think that age range is ready to see the act, in all its uneditted glory.
PS: Before the net, most teenage males still had viewed pr0n at some point. So what's the story here?
Wow. I wonder how good of a case some of you that so vehemently state points(some empirical) about how pr0n is good, human hard-wirng, and gender differntials to your wives/girlfriends(pet?)if they caught you looking at the pr0n...I would even buy tickets to that shit;D Quantum leap into the 21st century, never knew you were into 3somes, DP,TP,QP,BDSM,bukkake, or voyeurism?(Google + page preview)you do now! Even better, now you can be selective in a way that you never could be before the night you met your significant other. Truth be told the reason that the women that *are* threatened by pr0n is due to the fact that most of the women on these sites look like your next door neighbor, a person you or they may work with, a random pretty passerby, I even dare say a member of either's family. That is most dangerous part of all. If I were a woman I would find it very difficult to have to measure up to my partner's constantly changing taste's in females, or see him fap to a picture of some chick that looks likes my best friend, mom, or mail-woman...Though all the same, being as the primary demographic here is composed of males; I would think that *I* being a male of course, would find it highly threatening if I knew that my wife/gf was fapping at pictures of a dude that looked rather familiar (CHARLIE! IS THAT YOU CHARLIE MURPHY?)with a 12'+ "staff of thrusting"...All I'm saying is that we all like/love porn, but if your in a relationship where you do and she doesn't(like porn)or even vice-versa, nothing beats a good conversation about the topic(OF SEX!)while having a drink followed immediately by a trip your local sex shop:D 2c-...nah...this is worth 200c-)
that I "wank" to internet porn daily. Multiple times. I don't have any kids, I don't drink or do drugs, and I make a great sallary. I can't say the same about any of my friends who don't have similar sexual outlets.
I question why the parent was moderated flamebait.. Being -quite frankly by my opinion- an idiot, who falls for all that bible crap doesn't make him a flamebaiter. Obviously sex/mastrubation feels good => use it, considering consequences and ethics. (too bad i only had the second one :( )
Reading the replies of the post may be very instructive for some, maybe parent should be moderated up, hmm interesting or something. (nearly wanted to say funny, but don't do that)
The idea isn't that everyone thinks porn is OK, it is that restricting porn, even if there is some "health issues" with it, entails a whole lot of stuff more than just "restricting porn".
What is porn? I heard some religious christian people claiming that sex ed materials for high school students was "Child Pornography" (after all, it included illustrations of sexual intercourse that were "presumably" between under age people). The Bare Naked Ladies (the lame rock band), were once banned from an outdoor public performance in Toronto because the name was "pornographic, and offensive and degrading to women". I have heard people who want to ban Gay Pride parades or celebrations, saying that a Gay Pride parade is lewd and a form of pornography. Clearly, people will totally stretch the definition of what is porn in order to have whatever they want banned to be banned.
But even assuming that we could 100% say, without any manipulation or mis-interpretation, what "porn" is, there is other problems.
How do we stop web porn?... well, we have all internet traffic monitored by the government, that is how. We licence web sites, and make sure only government apporved and licenced web sites are allowed on the internet. We give the ability for the government to track everything that a person does on the internet. There is a whole bunch of technical changes and a whole infrastructure that has to be created to "do something about porn". And the infrastructure, once in place, can be used for all sorts of police state tactics.
But my guess is there is no evidence that porn is harmfull. Much like Hillary Clinton wants the government to "investigate health issues with videogames", it is a way to circumvent constitutional protection by making it a "health issue". By determining certain types of expression to be "harmful", they can claim they are acting in a public health capacity and not implementing government censorship.
How does that compare to previous years?
When I was a kid, you could get porn, but it was hard, expensive, and pretty embarrassing. I got hold of some, but it was rare.
These days you have to make an active effort to avoid porn, as it is beamed into your email box, shows up on your google serches and can pop up on any random web links you may encounter.
I think it's mainly a good thing, but don't imagine that things have not changed very much, kids!!
Even an amateur social researcher will tell you that you can't get to "real" unedited personal opinions about most topics. The average highly functioning person filters *everything* they say through what's acceptable before they utter a single word.
In the U.S. where "sexuality" is mostly equivalant to titilation, consider it impossible.
OT story:
My mom was on morphine a strong dose of morphine once after some surgery. It dropped that "filter" that everyone has. It was the most enjoyable, fact-filled 30 minute conversation about my extended family I've ever had. Thank you morphine!
http://www.maxineudall.com/2010/02/should-economists-be-sued-for-malpractice.html
Addiction is not always (though usually) destructive; but internal emptiness is. Why does addiction get so much prominence when it's not the real issue? Why don't we focus on the idea that "half of 9-19 year olds feel empty inside?"
Gotta go... running late for therapy :)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,3605,107 9016,00.html There's also a reply to the article by Sam Fryman floating around.....
Per Aspera Ad Astra.
if they polled this website i bet it would 100% of all males aged 18-75 waxed off to internet porn daily.
6 in a row
Making love with a real person has some qualities that porn does not offer. More specifically, a person involved in real sex learns how to share, how to give, how to accept, how to hold each other and how to interpret the other's body language signals. Porn does not involve all that. I wonder if that has an effect to people and to society overall.
Then:
Online pr0n is an excellent way to explode one's sexuality...
Dude - maybe you need to cut back...?
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
Maybe you are just asexual (lacking sex drive and capacity to feel sexual attraction)... I hope for your own sake it's the latter. But you have to realize that moralizing about something you don't understand due to sexual dysfunction you may have incured genetically or through psychological trauma doesn't make your argument any more reasonable.
Make up your mind. You may find that instead of making sweeping generalizations about "religion", that it instead depends heavily on the individual.
How can the "opiate of the masses" create violent crazies? Maybe the violent crazies would have been violent crazies without the religious influence, and the religion simply provided a convenient banner to fly?
Similarly, maybe complacent people are complacent people, irrespective of religion.
In the general case, religion is a civilizing force (most push the "don't steal/kill/whatever" lines). In the general case, religion is a motivator, not an opiate (e.g. World Vision, Catholic schools in areas where there are no schools otherwise, church members helping each other in difficult situations, etc, etc.). Not to say that things don't get out of hand once in a while, but that's the exception, rather than the rule. And again, it's heavily influenced by the predisposition of the individual in question.
By the way - it was Karl Marx. Nice role model. He didn't say "Love thy neighbor" and "Pray for your enemies", though. That was some other guy...
Girlz don exit on teh intarweb!!
This already exists - peruse some of Adam and Eve's online selection, or any of the other "regular" sex toy and porn video outlets, and you will find plenty of "regular", non-extreme porn available. There is also several lines of "instructional" video series out there, designed to teach partners (straight, gay, bi, whatever) how to "do it better", be more open in love making, etc.
Many of these are designed, directed and produced by women for woman (and/or their partners). Most are pretty well done as instructional videos. Unfortunately, they all tend to be more expensive than regular porn DVDs and the like, simply because of the higher production value and the lower demand (yes, there is demand, but it is nowhere near as high as for regular porn).
Also, please be aware that these videos are most suitable for adults only, and are NOT meant as instructional aids for teenagers or children (ie, sex education).
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
everytime you turn on the tv.
just look at tv shows before the internet became popular, and now.
I found the article reflecting many of my feelings about porn. One is that, like any other activity, you become tolerant and bored with what you have and to get the thrill back you have to escalate to something more intense. It is ridiculous what they resort to to try to get you interested. People are hardwired to adjust to virtually anything.
Another is that porn screws up men's ability to be sexually turned on by normal woman. I joked with a friend in college once (who immediately agreed) that I hated magazines like Playboy because they made it impossible to be truly turned on by the majority of real woman around us. It creates a constant dissatisfaction with reality.
I find most porn boring now. They all have the same tired looking blonds and they all portray sex the same way. The men are frequently being hostile to the woman (I thought straight guys liked woman?) which is a real turn off to me. I'd rather see a cute real world girl anyday.
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
Categorically condemning porn is like declaring anyone who consumes alcohol to be an alcoholic, regardless of quantity imbibed. Yes, some porn is worrisome, but what always strikes me as illogical about our western value system is how we celebrate violence but consider the viewing of people mating to be abnormal.
A Vietnam vet once said, "war is the most vulgar thing man can do to man." That word choice, "vulgar," always struck me. It's considered perfectly healthy and even Christian to go to the movies and bear witness to people slaughtering eachother in all sorts of inventive ways. We cheer when the good buy sends a round through the brains of the "bad" guy, delight in big-budget scenes of bombers blowing troops to shreds, etc, etc. Hell, collecting war movies is considered no more deviant than collecting video games.
But should you amuse yourself, at your discretion, by watching people get a little kinky then you're a social misfit. It's almost a pity that we did not descend a bit more from the bonobo monkey -- a completely peaceful ape whose days consist of eating fruit and mating. H.sapiens come closer to the rhesus -- tribal, quarrelsome, and unafraid to resort to violence.
At any rate, if you spend all your free time wanking in front of the computer, particularly if you have a sexual partner, you're a little sleazy and ought to get a life. But I rather doubt you'll be the downfall of civilization.
CommentBot 0.7a running with args "-module irritate,disagree -target random"
The problem isn't that there is too much porn on the internet, the problem is that modern society doesn't provide adequate opportunities for 'real' sex. Too much work, two wage earner couples, kids, pets, traffic, in laws, etc. - who has the time? Instead of wringing their hands about internet porn, researchers should be working to force companies to offer mid-afternoon sex break w/pay giving people a chance to slip of home for a quick one. Problem solved.
"I'm fairly sure that if they took all the porn off the Internet, there'd only be one website left, and it would be called Bring Back The Porn."
Dr. Cox
There is no use debating the subject of religion and any specific "sin" if the one you are speaking to does not accept the fundamentals of your faith. This is both a Christian concept and just plain common sense. You can make assertions of truth all you like, but unless they are viewed in the correct light someone who opposes your faith will never see your point of view, thus making your assertions incredible and unintelligible.
From the Christian perspective, whether God hates or condones the use of pornography or other unbiblical sexual activities should not be the focus of a conversion with someone who is not of the same beliefs, because any argument you make from the Christian perspective is not going to be agreed with based on that fundamental difference in beliefs. It is acceptable to make logical statements, I believe, in any debate or discussion, but bringing specific laws of scripture into play is pointless to those who do not believe, and rightly so. You may believe what you like, and you may be right, but regardless of the truth you'll receive no respect for it by the very nature of your arguments. It is better from the Christian perspective to point people to the most foremost object of the belief (Christ) in hopes they draw these conclusions on their own. If the opposition rejects this simple belief, then the debate with religion as a factor is over.
I'm a Christian myself, and I have a very specific set of beliefs, but none of those come into play here. Obviously from my point of view everything I do could be related to my beliefs, but that isn't something for me to assert as fact to my non-believer friends and acquaintances. It is more beneficial to be considerate and understanding of others' views even if I don't accept those views as fact.
That said, since it is obvious we have a highly diverse group here, why don't we keep the discussion at a practical level?
Humans have learned to inherit more than just the genes. Culture is inheritable as well but it doesn't go that direct as genes. The painter very well could have had as significant an impact on the world as that crack-whore welfare mama
It is my belief that pron on the internet has made the "smooth look" fashionable...If you know what I mean. No complaints here...
Now that reply was pure ownage!
"How does one fill that hole in their soul?"
Hey, Pr0n is all about filling holes!
The "God-shaped hole" quote is from Pascal's Pensees.
Human being (n.): A genetically human, genetically distinct, functioning organism.
The effect is this article is too blurry to read.
If pornagraphy is the best the internet has to offer then I say we shut the whole thing down today. c'mon it can and does to alot better. What about music, what about community, what about ect.
Pornagraphy ( by this i don't me art i mean images that are intended to sexually stimulate.) is a blight. It has the effect on people especially men of making them selfish.
When you look at pron are you thinking " I wonder what that woman is like. I wonder if she likes what she is doing? I wonder what type of human being she is?' NO
You concern I waon't claim it involves thought is it feels good to be doing what I'm doing and I like what I see. YOU ARE BEING SELFISH AND NOT CONSIDERING THE OTHER HUMAN BEINGS AS ANYTHING OTHER THEN OBJECTS FOR YOUR PLEASURE.
Guess what, when you do somehting over and over it becomes a habbit. Then if you are really with a woman that habbit is repeated. You treat her like the porn and the porn like her.
She becomes less human.
when women are less human , sooner or later so are is the your outlook on men. All humans become objects for your use and pleasure because of your reinforced habbit.
Not that this is wholly a male problem. Women have thier parts but as I'm not a woman I'm not going to speak as directly to that.
âoeTolerance applies only to persons, but never to truth. Intolerance applies only to truth, but never to persons.
... to be addicted to rape and STD spreading...
But an addiction is not a pr0n problem, but rather a personal problem that if not pr0n, would be something else.
I was 13 the first time I had a computer in my home. When I first got online and surfed the web I was amazed at how much pr0n I could find without even searching for it. Well being the teenage boy I was, I clicked a lot of those ads and took the tour for free nudies...
Anyways... now I am 25 and honestly I have seen a lot of thins people just shouldn't have to see( tubgirl, goatse, and a lot of others ). Yes, I admit it was somewhat amusing to post the links to my friends see the reactions they give. Just like what happened to me. But now when I see things like that, it kind of seems normal. I feel like I am jaded( Iv seen everything type of mentality ). Now im getting older and settling down... and I think to myself... do I want my children to experience these things to... to be at the point where this sick and twisted stuff dosnt bother him/her so much because they have seen so much of it?
I really don't know what im getting at here, but its just the way I have been feeling about the internet and how much garbage there is out there... do we really want this for the next generation? Or should things change? I truly believe in freedom and speech, but I know for a fact underage kids can gain access to pr0n sites without problems... age verification is crap... any kid can grab mom or pop's credit card and all of a sudden they are 18+ according to the internet... I was one of them...
Well that's my rant for the day..
-micro
Oh no! Porn is available and the consequences are staggering, lots of people (ok, men) look at it.
I'm not saying that there isn't a negative impact on society, but how come these articles never get around to exploring what those consequences are. It makes men depressed? Sure it does, the media is constantly scolding you for doing something with staggering consequences.
Later on the article states:
Thats probably why they didn't bother to try. Whatever they are, I'm sure they're staggering.
On this matter, you and I part company. You support pimps using web sites to sell sex services provided by their "employees".
I support arresting the pimps.
Last time i check if it wasnt for porn on the net theier would be no need for highspeed internet acess, no need for wifi, 4get about voip, real time video conference( yeah right), ondemand video hah,
porn saved the internet, created(well not) but funded the creatiion and development of cheap acess to massive amounts of information
last time i check porn was the only thing that made a profit on the net.
if it wasnt for porn we would all be using dial up.
there i said it '
pce
1
csdkrew
All right then. I would agree with just about everything you said (regarding the positive nature of masturbation), but the topic is pr0n, not masturbation. Perhaps kids today lack imagination, but I know I was able to get by with just the Sears catalog.
I thank $DEITY every day that my wife is NOT in the majority, on this point. I recognise that for a lot of men, this isn't the case - sucks to be them!
Ultimately, the key to happy and successful marriage is honesty and communication. My wife and I talk about and discuss everything, no matter how personal, embarassing, or private it may be. She knows my fears, concerns, and intimate details of my life, the same as I know hers. Consequent to this, it is very difficult for either of us to lie to the other, and have a hope of getting away with it. Which leads to my next point:
Viewing pornography is not the same as going out and having an affair!
Had you instead said that viewing pornography without your partner's knowledge and consent is the same as having an affair, I wouldn't be arguing this. An affair indicates deceit and lack of communication in the marriage. In a marriage based on trust and communication, a man (or woman) would be able to discuss such feelings, wants, and urges, and come to an understanding on them with thier significant other. An affair is a breach of such trust, discussing the idea of an "open marriage", and/or agreeing on it and/or such rules, however, IS NOT AN AFFAIR.
People have and do participate in "open marriages" - where such marriages fail, though, is when communications and trust break down in the participants. If one of members of a marriage "falls in love" with the other, and "falls out of love" with the person he or she is married to, and does not communicate this to them, then an affair could start, and the marriage could be in trouble. Such open relationships require trust, honesty, and open communication amongst all parties involved. Ultimately, if all parties are involved, open, trustworthy of each other, and have open communications with one another, the marriage (in union, not legal, sense) could become tighter all the way around, and a trusting polyamourous relationship could be formed between the participants.
My wife and I have discussed such things, ultimately we concluded that at the present time, it isn't for us or our relationship. I am fine with that, and we continue to discuss as well as joke on each other about it. We maintain our open communication and trust. We have fun, we play, we experiment in the bedroom. We even (GASP!) watch hardcore porn together! THE HORROR!
So far, things must be working - we just recently celebrated our 12th anniversary of being together...
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
So more than 50% of the teenagers have seen porn? That's really good news!
Being familiar with porn and viewing the act of sex as a natural thing will enable them to do it better.
If you look at the past you will see that when talking about sex was a taboo, most of the women didn't even know what an orgasm was!!!
Let your kids see, talk and do it a lot, that's the best way to learn...
``What has been, that will be; what has been done, that will be done. Nothing is new under the sun.
Even the thing of which we say, "See, this is new!" has already existed in the ages that preceded us.
There is no remembrance of the men of old; nor of those to come will there be any remembrance among those who come after them.''
> Heck, can you even make the case that what you're talking about is selling better
> than other types of porn, or being downloaded more frequently?
I don't know what sells and I never pay for my porn-downloads either. But I find
it obvious that there is too much of this "unhealthy" porn out there. You see
it all the time, wether you look for it or not. There realy is a shortage of
"nice" porn. Like, with people who have fun, smile, or are even able to fake
some sympathy and stuff. Of course, seeing too many happy couples in their porn
would make many customers depressed/angry/unhappy, that's why there is a lot
of "random-stranger-sex"-porn, to not make people envious. But still, I want
more "happy-porn"!
This idea that people (not just kids) sponge up bad attitudes from role models in the media (and that includes porn) is really pervasive throughout society, but I've seen no evidence for it. In fact I'd call the counter-evidence pretty strong. How many efforts to wield this "power" (for good, "good", and plain evil) have failed? Remember Eminem's "mosh"? He rocked the other guy's vote. Not an isolated incident.
Truth is, I just don't believe that any human learns bad attitudes from the media accidentally. It's a matter of (instinctual) intent, and not at all passive. Kids deliberately pick up and adopt the pervasive mores of their culture - and in most cases, just as deliberately reject what society sees as taboo, quickly picking up which media messages slot into which category.
I think where folks get confused is: kids learn actions as actions, words as words. So if you have a culture that talks taboo about sex but doesn't act taboo, the kids will copy both halves. Thus the wierd American culture of the prurient priss rolls on into another generation.
But this time, its teh intarweb!! Oh noes!
*rolls eyes*
smash.
I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
"Porn for women" has been around as long and been more widely available than "porn for men", yet no one complains, does studies, or even talks about it. But, that is ok because porn for women isn't pictures, it is words. And, we all know that reading books and stories doesn't effect the thoughts and minds of people unless there are pictures, right?
Interesting point. I guess the difference is that if you're reading a book with no pictures in it, you're probably considered emotionally old enough to handle the content in a mature and responsible manner.
Incidently, this is pretty similar to an article on E2 I was reading today, about how books are rarely censored compared to films, games and so on (a good case in point is that the book Fight Club teaches you how to make bombs; the film version was edited to take out a few of the necessary steps).
"internal emptiness is the problem, and people will fill it with video games, porn, crack, sex or whatever else"
Personally, being a guy and a slashdotter, I find that the problem is that I can't find a void to fill... with my cock! So I whack off to porn instead.
Are you getting morbidly obese? You can't get into you car anymore? Are your knees and hips failing because of your weight, but yet you can't stop munching on 'dem ding dongs? Well, then you have a problem, my friend, and you are in denial about it, along with good part of US population, especailly from the Southern states. So keep trying, set small goals, remember, bariatric surgery is only a final solution when other methods fail. Join weight watchers, that might help too. Good Luck.
Timothy Leary said about Sixties drug culture, 'tune in and drop out'. The modern equivalent is 'log on and get off'."
:-P
I stopped reading right there. I have no problem with bad, meaningless puns. But bad, meaningless puns that are trying to make an actual analogy I can't take.
Property is theft.
It is NOT best to "hide t3h pr0n". This is dishonest to your partner - you are essentially lying to them about your interest in porn.
It is better to have an open, honest, and frank discussion with your partner about how you each feel about porn. Once you have established communications about it, you need to come to an agreement regarding it. Maybe it isn't the porn, maybe it is masturbation (strange, but I have heard such arguments). Whatever it is, you need to discuss it.
Ultimately, you need to act like adults in this issue. If it comes down to it, the relationship may need to end. But it is better that the relationship ends based on honest communication, than it ending based on lies and deceit.
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
Karma be damned, that was on Insightful post.
USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
100% of slashdot readers have seen on line p0rn. Only 84.2% have seen goats.ex
http://www.provenmen.org/
But Herr Heisenberg, how does the electron know when I'm looking?
A few months ago I read "The Evolution of Desire" by David M. Buss. Basically as a way to figure out wtf the average woman is thinking. It was a real eye opener about gender differences - essentially, what do men want and what do women want. The book has an unapologetically evolutionary perspective. Not surprisingly, men want sex and women want men with status, money, and power. Seeing as I have no status, money, or power and I primarily want sex but can't get any, I figure the book is the closest thing to absolute truth there is.
On the subject of porn... you can't just explain it away as something you do that's "bad". Men have evolved to want to have sex with many women, and now with internet porn we can come close to fulfilling that desire. As men we can't be nearly as selective as women are when it comes to mating - we are programmed to want all women that fit a certain physical type. Our desires have been tempered by societal norms. Constantly surfing the web for porn is a waste of time and it isn't going to do anything for you in the long run - but understanding why we do this is the best way to fixing the problem. "Society" isn't going to fix the problem of too much pr0n unless it looks at some of the evolutionary reasons behind it. This is a Catch-22 - because the people who want to solve the problem the most - religious types - will reject evolution and reject an understanding of the underlying cause of porn "addiction". Personally, I think going through life with a constant feeling of guilt is worse for you than looking at Playboy.
How on earth can masturbation cause you to lose your job? I mean that's what were talking about here, masturbation with stimulous vs. masturbation without stimulous.
This 'addiction' stuff is nonsense.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
I'm trying to play ET and you're killing my ping.
You actually play that two-bit piece of crap?
You want to protect people's good health?
BAN All Tobacco and Alcohol advertisements, in print, radio, TV, and movie 'product placements'.
BAN Candy and Soft drinks from all schools, vending machines, and ANY area accessible to those under the age of 25.
Criminalize high-fructose corn syrup, sodium nitrate, Tobacco growing and Alcohol manufacturing. Make it the same crime as growing pot or making crack.
Then get back to the discussion of pictures of naked people.
These days, if you make a typo when entering the name of a web site, you'll probably wind up at a porn site. It really sucks if you do this at work. It really really sucks if you do this at work and the boss sees you.
.com would be wonderful, even for the people who like porn.
Getting porn out of
Catholic priests, most of which don't make news headlines, have a 3x higher rate of prostate cancer.
Hey, maybe health insurance companies should charge extra if you don't ejaculate! They charge extra for smoking. Imagine the application form: "How often do you..."
http://www.pointlesswasteoftime.com/pornoff.html
Religion trying to engorge itself by encouraging somebody who has declared their own susceptibility to addictibe behaviour to substitute their old prop for a new one that is even more parasitic.
This guy already knows he is gay. Anti-sex/homphobic Christianity is the last thing likely to constructively fill the gaps he needs to fill to reduce the temptations to addiction.
Just a *hug* would be a much better starting point.
-- Our systemic servants do not good masters make.
Your "either/or" argument is flawed, because there are other possibilities for the bible, homosexuality, and God's intent.
There are lots of conditions where people are "born that way". For example, Science makes a claim that some people are "born" to be alchoholics.
That doesnt mean that those people are somehow "forced" to go drink 10 bottles of booze a day, or get government protection and subsidies for any booze habit they bring on themselves.
Whether or not someone is predisposed to be addicted to alchohol, does not force them to pick up a bottle and drink every day.
Similarly, whether or not someone is predisposed to be sexually attracted to someone of the same sex or not, is irrelevant. What matters is what they choose to do about it.
You may as well say, "well, God made me get born into a poor family. we have no money, so CLEARLY, God wants me to steal. Stealing must be ok with God, because I was born poor, and I gotta have money to live".
You may have waaaay more incentive to steal than others. but whether or not you steal, is a choice.
Attraction is involuntary. Having sex with someone, is a choice.
The bible doesnt say, "choose to do whatever makes you feel good". It asks us to choose to act in a manner that makes God pleased with us.
Doing those actions (or refraining from those actions) may be more difficult for some people than for others. but it is still a choice on each person's part.
Whether or not someone is predetermined to have a sexual preference one way or the other, thus has no bearing on whether God approves or disapproves of it.
The cure for infections is antibiotics. If someone has an infection whether the person likes it or not, whether it makes them feel good, no matter what - it's the cure. The fact that antibiotics have unpleasant side-effects notwithstanding, they ultimately cure the disease.
I appreciate that you fundamentally disagree with my worldview, but frankly I believe that the only cure for the pain that he's feeling is in a relationship with Jesus Christ.
It's loving to speak the truth compassionately.
Respectfully,
Anomaly
But Herr Heisenberg, how does the electron know when I'm looking?
In many countries wine and beer are a normal part of life and young people are exposed to it accordingly. You don't typically see alcoholism problems or alcohol abuse in general in these countries.
In the United States, it's taboo. And anything taboo is simply irresistible to young people. The end result is a pattern of excess and abuse.
This view may be at least partly correct, but it's worth pointing out that it's easier to drink in a bar under age (at least it was ten years ago) in the UK and Australia than in, say, France, but those countries still think they have a problem with people abusing alcohol (compared to most European countries).
If a 30 year old male exposes himself in public, he is liable to get arrested.
If a 30 year old male shows pornography, even softcore, to a child, he is likewise
liable to get arrested.
If a 30 year old male is watching a gang rape (simulated or not) at a public/university
library in full view of the public, is he not equally guilty? After all, children could
be walking by. Even if a 29 year old female walks by, is she not being harassed?
Sure, the visual image is not directed at her, but the same could be said about a male
who has passively disrobed (for no apparent reason).
Sure, she can just 'not look at it' but, likewise, the same could be said if the male was exposed.
Sure, it's on a visual display device, and thus 'not real' but is sexual harassment no longer
sexual harassment if it is encoded electronically and THEN transmitted? What if the male was
viewing a digital version of HIMSELF? What about a picture of himself with an explicit
proclaimation to passers-by? How does this compare to the public viewing of the gang-rape?
Is this really worse/better for these passers-by? It must be acknowledged that monitors
-broadcast- visual information.
I would think the female would have a pretty good case, at least for sexual harassment.
Exposing in public someone to graphic XXX content, even unintentionally, should certainly
be viewed as worse than, say, parading around in a non-sexual but completely nude state.
VISUAL IMAGES are VISUAL IMAGES.
Unfortunately this sort of thing, to a greater or lesser extent, happens all the time.
I witnessed such an event today.
A plea: Regardless of your views on porn, can't all you public porn viewers just wait to
find someplace private? Get a virtual room, dammit!
Rex Butler
I think some girls even prefer that I look at it. But would never admit this.
I'll tell you why.
See, perhaps like others on slashdot, I'm not astoundingly attractive. No, not unattractive to the point where women don't want to be seen with me, just not attractive to the point were they wanna ----. So after a few girlfriends, and then a year or two of unsucessful dating attempts, I've found a balance. It goes like this - I listen well, and talk decently, and look non-threatening. So women will go out, eat dinner, have a nice conversation. But! they certainly wouldn't want be caught dating me. And yes, I've asked. They also make this clear by occasionally paying for my dinner as well as theirs. So the lightbulb went on when I decided (because life was just getting hectic), to see how long I could go without wasting time reading e-mail, reading news, etc. This also means I left out porn. Which resulted in me telling one or two women I liked them. I even asked one a date (she did say yes, then later changed her mind). Eventually, I needed to check my e-mail, and back came the porn as well.
Now the balance has been struck. I can go out, have a nice dinner & conversation (even with rather attractive girls!), and sometimes will relax to some porn. I'm happier, I have better relationships with women, and the women I know are happier and more relaxed around me as well.
So how is this bad?
Now if you didn't catch the satirical part of this post (the obscene importance placed on porn in connection with relationships) - then we just don't have the same sense of humour.
If you didn't catch the sad part of this post (the facts are, sadly, basically true - I just left out key points that where the real reasons women reacted this or that way). Then you should really be out with your significant other, because you must have the social skills and good looks to have one...
thanks for the update captain obvious. More and more women are getting online, hence most (not the mods) would presume that there would be an increased number of women getting addicted to porn. Also, since women are more likely to seek counseling for most issues, it is also not surprising that your reported metric is number of women seeking counseling for porn addiction.
the anecdotal pearl adds little to your statement and rings of a "one time at band camp..." tale.
sorry if this criticism comes across as harsh, it's more of a wake up call to mods than an attack on your comment.
Religion's only power is its control over the sex lives of its adherents. People in one-religion countries have no choice but to be married in the church. If they don't sign on to the religion's requirements - no (condoned) sex life. The more recreational pursuits that are banned, the more a religiously subservient life becomes the only option. Addiction to anything is a relief from life in a cage.
And how much have seen porn offline ? dad's DVD are always here ... :)
When fiction hits reality, dreams have no air-bag.
Shopping by itself is my wife's equivalent of porn. I shit you not, there is even a magazine devoted to shopping, and she subscribes to it. Its design esthetics are obviously influenced by porno mags directed at men.
-ccm
Too much Law; not enough Order.
> For instance, how many folks still follow Deuteronomy 21: 18-21?
Or Leviticus 11:9-12, Deuteronomy 14:9-10? Eat a shrimp, go to Hell.
godhatesshrimp.com
"Shopping by itself is my wife's equivalent of porn. I shit you not, there is even a magazine devoted to shopping, and she subscribes to it. Its design esthetics are obviously influenced by porno mags directed at men">
In a way, that's kinda good. Makes it harder for her to complain when your subscription copy of Pink or Stink? (Monthly) drops through the letterbox.
You know damn well that she's fantasising about spending a fortune, she knows damn well that you're fantasising about kicking her back door in on a regular basis. The shared knowledge that each partner has about the other partner's intentions prevents any extreme action. A kind of Mutually Assured Destruction for a relationship, if you will...
T&K.
Political language
on if you count goatse and tubgirl....................
note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
A site like that will really take off when some enterprising organization starts selling generic anonymous pre-paid stored value cards that can be used with current banking networks. None of the big 4 credit card companies seem to be rushing into this niche - I guess because it runs counter to the idea of selling high-interest loans. Amex would be the obvious choice, as an extension of the travelers' checks, but convenience stores might be too low-brow for them.
Yeah, I've seen the prepaid MasterCards, but you have to sign up with them for an account; not a cash replacement.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
The way it used to work (in 18th century America, anyway), walls were really expensive: a total PITA to have in a log cabin. Now couple this with the fact that back then, sex was a very important part of the puritan family (you don't have a family without sex, after all). For example, a man was once thrown out of his town because he had not had sex with his wife for 2 years. I'm fairly certain that under these circumstances, children grew up to be very knowledgable about male/female relations.
Your comment is going straight into my quotes collection. Well put, well put.
"1984" was ment to be a warning, not a guidebook. You hear that Kim Jong-il!? BushCo?!
Hmm, speaking from experience I'd say there's nothing as well matched as lots and lots of music and lots and lots of porn. I watch a whole lot of porn and I rarely ever turn the volume on but I almost always have music cranked. Porn soundtracks are so annoying. I mean it's exciting to hear a chick moan for the first minute or so, but hours and hours of it is annoying as hell. On the other hand, when the action on the video works with the music, which happens all the time, it's awesome.
I leave porn on pretty much all the time on one of my monitors. Why not?
Funny you should say that. My wife doesn't much care for buggery, but she doesn't really mind it either. What she does like most of all is sparkly things, and she has figured out that occasional trips down the back road are a good way to get them from her pathetically grateful anally-fixated pervert of a husband.
All thoughts are "neurochemical phenomenon". But the cause and effect relationship gets a bit cloudy in these areas. Gross disturbances of chemical compounds are indeed responsible for nerological illnesses in many cases. But the statement "you are what you think" has some merit as well. Ones thoughts and patterns of thought also effect neurochemical changes and balances.
I believe one can think themselves into a destructive neurochemical state. In effect you can program your brain into producing disturbances of chemical compounds. It seems to me that such "programming" often includes a feedback loop that amplify the processes. I suspect many bad habits and addictions are supported this way even if some start from external electro/chemical or internal biological infulences.
So yea I think "p0rn" could and indeed does act as the raw data source such in some cases, but then so can and also do books, news, movies, games and religious "faith". As to if "p0rn" by its nature in some way contributes to the "program source" in an especially destructive way, I would say depends upon the specific nature "p0rn" and the individual, same as for news, movies, games and religious "faith". Both also depend on the amount of "processing time applied.
Whether it is reading Hemmingway, watching the idiotic demologues on Fox News, looking at naked butts, watching violent or sexual deviant behaviour, watching scientific documentaries, watching violent movies or sports, playing challenging games, playing gratitiously violent games, listening to Mozart or listening to a deranged mulla or evangelist, do it long enough and it will change your neurochemistry and thus your thoughts and maybe your actions as well. What goes in... well thats your choice, sometimes:). What comes out, thats pretty much always your choice.
Matthew
"It's a popular modern quirk to consider ones time so unique and so different from any other time"
..... , or is it a recursive antropic .... Oh just forget it, I'm going outside. :)
"That's not a modern quirk at all. To state this is to consider our time so unique and so different from any other time."
Thats an antropic, no its a recursive, no its a antropic recursive
Matthew