How Bad Is It Really To Watch Porn?

Is porn bad? It is a question people have debated over the years. Some people may think of porn as a source of sex education, sexual enhancer, or even harmless entertainment. The truth is that there are far outreaching detrimental side effects of porn. There is a growing body of researches that show the near and long term effects of watching porn.

Porn has become more immersive than before, thanks to virtual reality (VR). Viewers experience the scenes first hand, and it changes their role from just a detached viewer to the protagonist. Such extensive availability of porn can often blur the lines between fantasy and reality for an individual.

Recent studies have correlated porn addiction similar to drug addiction. The brain fails to function normally without its dose of excitement or high-pleasure that comes with watching porn. It can even be considered worse than drug addiction since, with drugs, there is a limit to the amount the body can consume, but there are no such limits with pornography.

The adverse effects of pornography are multiple, and here is a list of some of the severe ill-effects of continuous pornography.

Porn causes depression, anxiety, and other mental issues.

Research by the Max Planck Institute in Berlin concluded that the region of the brain (striatum) linked to pleasure ( reward system) is smaller in individuals who watch a lot of porn. The reward sensitivity deteriorates over time, thus requiring more graphic material to be aroused. This condition is further associated with another serious health condition known as erectile dysfunction in men.

Men suffering from erectile dysfunction fail to get an erection during sex with real-life partners.

All these factors can further escalate and make the person feel anxious and depressed at the same time. The depletion in release of dopamine from the striatum makes men feel less excited about things that they enjoyed earlier.

Porn can ruin relationships

One of the most common side effects of porn is failed relationships. Research findings point out to an increased rate of divorce, higher risk of infidelity, and less stable relationships when one of the partners is addicted to pornography. A recent study carried over a span of 6 years concluded that the second common factor that influenced sex lives and marriage stability is porn use.

When a person watches excessive adult material, he may start expecting the same amount of excitement from his partner, and when that fails to happen, it may lead to bitter relationships. Watching pornography can lead to lesser satisfying sex with the partners. Frequent users tend to reach a point where internet porn arouses them more than real-life sex.

Porn promotes violence towards women

With the industry becoming more competitive by the day, the videos try to delve deeper into highly-arousing, aggressive, or even violent actions. Sure, not all tapes are extreme, but there are slight hints of violence revolving around sadomasochistic themes. Here, men are being portrayed as dominating and sexually aggressive towards women.

The videos show women to be obedient and submissive to any form of sexual aggression enacted upon them. Many studies show that people who often indulge in adult material tend to engage in sexually aggressive acts.

Watching such acts, in the long run, would mold the mindset and thoughts of an individual into viewing women as sexual objects and inferior to them.

Porn can alter sexual behaviors

Sure, pornography can make a person comfortable and open-minded about sex. The counterpart is that it can influence the kid into having sex at a very young age. Though porn sites are considered as “adult material,” the viewers are mostly below the legal age. Being exposed to porn during teenage years can influence the child into having multiple sexual partners, thus putting them at risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases.

These videos also exhibit sexual intercourse between homosexual men without the use of condoms. For those who watch explicit content, they may be influenced by not using protection while having sex.

Conclusion

Pornography can quickly become an addiction, and it has terrible effects on our health. Politicians in Utah have even labeled porn as being a public health hazard. As more people wallow in more porn every day, there are possibilities of higher rate of erectyle disfuncion in the future.