3 Reasons Why Porn is SO GOOD!
It’s pretty simple really, we are neurologically hardwired to lean towards paths of least resistance. What does this mean? It means if there’s a shortcut – our brain would prefer to take it. For example, why stand – when you can sit? Why run – when you can walk?
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It’s not that hard of a concept to understand because we can all relate. All of us in varying degrees would prefer easy than hard. I mean, who really wants a hard life?
So, on that note…let’s take a look at why porn seems so good:
1. Porn is like junk food.
It’s not going to kill you (literally)…but then again, nor is a Big Mac. Eat McDonald's every day for a month? And similar to the documentary, ‘Super Size Me’ with Morgan Spurlock and things aren’t going to look too good. (spoiler alert… he gained 11.1 kilograms (24 lb), a 13% body mass increase, increased his cholesterol to 230 mg/dL (6.0 mmol/L), and experienced mood swings, sexual dysfunction, and fat accumulation in his liver). Porn lets us be as lazy as we want to be and put in no effort.
2. We don’t need to care.
It’s hard being a human at times. Like…we actually have to CARE about people? Ughhhh.. what a mood killer! With porn we don’t need to care about consent. We don’t need to care about another person’s feelings. We don’t need to care about sexual abuse or violence. We don’t need to care about trafficking. We don’t need to care about sexual diseases. Porn is great because we can be as selfish as we want in our sex lives.
3. It’s like cocaine without the prison part.
Why are drugs so awesome? Because you get to feel like you’re in a dream-like state and not a care in the world! Porn is basically the same. Your brain dumps a ton of dopamine because you’re hacking it to believe that you’re living your best life. Similar to every drug out there, your brain (the irritating blob that it is) gets used to the fix (weed or porn) and you need more of it to get the same results. So eventually, you’ll need about 4 hours of porn and it’ll be 3 am in the morning…but hey…drugs and porn…who cares about the side effects!
But…
Like the pharmaceutical cautions on the oxy tablet packaging that no one read for a decade; there are some downsides to porn that you might want to think about:
1. It teaches you to be pretty selfish.
Is sex about you or is it about the other person? We are conditioned to assume it’s about ourselves. But that’s the same crazy thought pattern that makes a rapist do what they do… sex is about them. Who cares about the other person? Abuse in all forms is disgusting and perhaps if we all thought about others more than ourselves the world would be a slightly better place.
2. Look…there’s no two ways around this.
You’re not going to be able to get it up eventually. It…meaning… mechanically… your penis just isn’t going to function the same. Don’t believe me? I would say try it… but geez… Look, using porn to fuse your brain together with the neurons needed for arousal, is not going to give you great results. Your brain will eventually need the same stimuli to get you aroused irrelevant if you’re with an actual person or your favourite hand. It’s just a basic rat with cheese lab test – take away the cheese and the rat (you) aren’t going to function too well. It can be undone – it’s called a detox.
3. Porn is not real life.
What does that mean? It means that when you actually find someone to be with, more than likely they will not want to be degraded, punched, slapped, have painful sex, be treated like a toilet or act like you’re this fabulous person when you’re not. A guy is also probably not going to want to be judged exclusively on if he has a giant penis the size of a footlong sub that stays hard for 42 minutes (it doesn’t for anyone). Or if he has abs and 4% body fat – which again – is that you? (congrats if it is). And sadly, if you live long enough in a fantasy world, your real-world skills are going to deteriorate.
So why?
It’s not about wrong or right. Good or bad. The question is WHY? Why do you need porn? Why are you watching it? Can you not get an erection anymore? Can you not stay hard the whole time without it? Does your mind not focus on the person you’re with? Is porn educating you? Is it the type of education that you want? Are you depressed? Do you hide that you watch porn? Why do you hide it?
I’m not here to judge. I’m humbly suggesting that maybe, just maybe…this thing that seems to be promoted as harmless and SO GOOD is perhaps not SO GOOD as it seems.
Written by Jeremiah Jacob. (2020). www.jeremiahjacob.com/blog Host of The Stronger Podcast with Jeremiah. Permission required prior to use in part or whole.
References:
1. University College London “Humans Are Hard Wired to Follow the Path of Least Resistance.” NeuroscienceNews. NeuroscienceNews, 21, February 2017.
2. “Perceptual decisions are biased by the cost to act” by Nobuhiro Hagura, Patrick Haggard, and Jörn Diedrichsen in eLife. Published online February 21, 2017 doi:10.7554/eLife.18422
3. Do You Want a Resilient Brain? March 18, 2019 by Joycelyn Campbell Published by Brain-based Transformational Solutions
4. Love, T., Laier, C., Brand, M., Hatch, L., & Hajela, R. (2015). Neuroscience of internet pornography addiction: A Review and update. Behavioral Sciences, (5), 388-423.
5. Your Brain on Porn. https://www.yourbrainonporn.com/brain-scan-studies-porn-users
6. American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM). Long Definition of Addiction. https://www.asam.org/quality-practice/definition-of-addiction
7. Grubbs, J.B., Volk, F., Exline, J.J., & Pargament K.I. (2015). Internet pornography use: Perceived addiction, psychological distress, and the validation of a brief measure. Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy, 41(1), 83-106.
8. Super Size Me. (2004). Roadside Attractions.
