Pornography: harmless or harmful? - Mumbai Mirror
Many years ago I received an urgent message from the superintendent of a hospital. He told me that the students were using the computers to watch pornography. He asked me what he should do. I paused and answered that watching pornography was normal; unless it resulted
Many years ago I received an urgent message from the superintendent of a hospital. He told me that the students were using the computers to watch pornography. He asked me what he should do. I paused and answered that watching
pornography
was normal; unless it resulted in illegal behaviour, there was no need to take the matter forward.
According to studies, more than 30 per cent of all data transmitted online is pornographic, and men constitute around 70 per cent of porn consumers.
There is no real data to answer this question, but many people treat pornography as a learning medium. Some also use porn to facilitate their sexual experiences. Too much porn can affect your sexual relationship with a partner, and this can sometimes translate into problems during actual sex.
It is worth considering what is known as the Coolidge Effect, a biological phenomenon whereby males exhibit renewed sexual interest whenever a new female is introduced to have sex with, even after cessation of sex with prior but still available sexual partners.
The original experiments with rats applied the following protocol: A male rat was placed in a box with four or five female rats in heat. He immediately began to mate with all the female rats repeatedly until he eventually became exhausted. The females continued nudging him, yet he did not respond. When a new female was introduced into the box, he became alert and began to mate once again with her.
Researchers say we are programmed similarly, which is why internet porn enthrals the male of the species.
However, over-reliance on pornography has a detrimental effect on people’s relationships.
A 2008 Danish study states that moderate porn viewing has benefits and both men and women who watch porn have satisfying sex lives and healthier attitudes towards sex. There is, however, danger to daily porn watching; three hours of porn a week can cause a reduction of grey matter in your brain, in the areas that affect behaviour or mood. The more porn a man watches the more he is likely to act out porn scripts.
French studies tell us that 20 per cent of men in the 18-24 year group who watch excessive porn have no interest in real sexual activity. Is pornography then really an addiction? The DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder) of the American Psychiatric Associationdoes not recognise porn addiction as an official mental health diagnosis. There is some research that tells us that such behavioural addictions are serious and that internet pornography shares basic mechanism with substance addiction like drugs and alcohol. Others suggest that it is just a compulsion, but there is a thin line between compulsion and addiction.
Porn addiction is sometimes considered to be a subset of sex addiction. Forty million adults in the US visit internet porn sites on a regular basis. Twenty per cent of all men admit to watching porn at work and men who are happily married are 61 per cent less likely to watch porn. Eighty-eight of porn scenes contain physical aggression and 49 per cent verbal aggression.
However, a porn addict is one who watches excessive porn, which starts to have negative impact on his life, and watches pornography so much that it interferes with normal behaviour and there is a sense of emotional distress of withdrawal.
He continues to watch porn in spite of serious consequences of loss of relationship or job. He indulges in compulsive masturbation.
So parents who check their children’s browsing history should know that it is not abnormal to watch porn once in a while. But it is something to be worried about when symptoms mentioned above start to manifest.
