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Psychologist: Porn and Video Game Addiction Are Leading To 'Masculinity Crisis'

HughPickens.com writes: Philip Zimbardo is a prominent psychologist from Stanford, most notable for leading the notorious Stanford prison experiment. He has published new research findings based on the lives of 20,000 young men, and his conclusion is stark: there is a developing "masculinity crisis" caused by addiction to video games and pornography. "Our focus is on young men who play video games to excess, and do it in social isolation — they are alone in their room," says Zimbardo. "It begins to change brain function. It begins to change the reward center of the brain, and produces a kind of excitement and addiction. What I'm saying is — boys' brains are becoming digitally rewired."

As an example, Zimbardo uses this quote from one young man: "When I'm in class, I'll wish I was playing World of Warcraft. When I'm with a girl, I'll wish I was watching pornography, because I'll never get rejected." Zimbardo doesn't think there's a specific time threshold at which playing video games goes from being acceptable to excessive. He says it varies by individual, and is more based on a "psychological change in mindset." To fight the problem, he suggest families need to track how much time is being spent on video games compared to other activities. "He also called for better sex education in schools — which should focus not only on biology and safety, but also on emotions, physical contact and romantic relationships."

5 of 950 comments (clear)

  1. Re:nature will breed it out by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    That, and the free market. TFS puts it in plain sight: "I wish i was watching porn because I'll never get rejected [by porn]". So, suffering a male suitor shortage, women will lower their standards and rejection rates will go down. This will push more men back into old fashioned fornication. See, Adam Smith can really solve anything.

  2. Re:Missing The Point! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Did you read the rest of the sentence about what should be *added* to sex education?

    Full quote: "He also called for better sex education in schools — which should focus not only on biology and safety, but also on emotions, physical contact and romantic relationships."

  3. A rebuke...from a real-live, non-crazy feminist by Guy+From+V · · Score: 4, Informative

    Read this story a day ago, and also this solid criticism on its bullshittiness.

    https://medium.com/@cainejw/th...

  4. Re:Feminist bullshit by Stormwatch · · Score: 5, Informative

    No, the golden rule is: if you have the gold, you make the rules.

  5. Re:Feminist bullshit by LWATCDR · · Score: 4, Informative

    It got modded up because the readers on Slashdot do not want to hear that porn and or video games have any downside.

    Of course they forget that free access to addictive substances has been shown in study after study to cause problems.

    --
    See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.