The Effects of Pornography

Pornography has become quite rampant and acceptable in our current society, and it is embedded in the fabric of all ages, genders, races, and ethnicities.  Although pornography is not a new phenomenon, it certainly has taken the population by storm.  There are a lot of popular pornography sites and recent statistics show that there were over 39 billion pornography searches along with the addition of almost 7 million new videos to the inventory.  These figures are quite astounding, and this data should really make you realize how enormous this industry has become. 

Pornography can have many negative influences, which may be harmful and detrimental to the psychological well being of individuals. The mind is bombarded by approximately 11 million bits of information per second, and the conscious mind narrows that down to a manageable amount of 40 bits per second.  However, all the information that bombards the brain, continues to the subconscious part of the mind, which can create a false sense of reality.  To say that just watching porn, or anything for that matter, cannot affect a person is way off base.  The subconscious mind is the part of the brain that gets trained and acts automatically by the input that it is given, and it does not know the difference between thoughts, this reality, or what enters through passive actions.  What I am attempting to say is, then, is that watching pornography will affect the perception of sexual acts and relationships.  Your perception forms new patterns and creates a void for a person when trying to relate to another, especially when having sexual interaction.  Many pornography addicts find it difficult to perform appropriately during sexual activities with a real person. 

As most of us know, religions predominantly view sexual activity as a perversion of chastity which creates a pattern of lust, which is quite opposite of the sexual interaction within a wholesome marriage.  Now I can agree with that theology to some extent because most sexual acts generally generate from some type of lustful thinking.  Let us face that facts, to be sexually interactive, you must have feelings of lust.  But does lust exist in a well-formed and bonded marriage?  I think it does, because without the thoughts of sex and the thoughts of connecting with your mate, sex would generally not happen.  Discussions about lust in the Bible generally seem to be aimed at the female gender, which makes sense since most of the writings were documented in a very male dominated society. Women are, and have been viewed as objects for sexual pleasure, only to be used for the glory of the male orgasm.  I understand that line of thinking, simply based on the way the male and female brains are wired.  A classic man gets the urge to have sexual release about every 72 hours, and the urge wants to be satisfied within minutes.  Women on the other hand, generally do not have as much of a sex drive as men.  Of course, this is not always true, but most men and women are similar in that respect.  This dilemma can then create an environment where the man must be satisfied at the beckoning and seducing of a woman.

There is another dilemma when it comes to the constant viewing of pornography.  What most pornography addicts soon find, is that they become bored with normal sexual videos, and find themselves beginning to watch genres of these videos that they found appalling initially.  Soon they may find themselves delving into tangents of pornography that depicts the humiliation, torture, rape, and violent acts towards women.  As you can easily imagine, this can morph into adultery, child pornography and the like.  Additionally, a person can become desensitized by watching pornography videos and soon come to feel like the tangential varieties of sexual acts are normal and that women enjoy things done to them.  The internet has opened a whole new avenue and easy access to pornography, and you can access much of this for free.  Just like a drug dealer might give away samples at first to get a person hooked on their product, the pornography industry does the same pattern of bait and hook.  The younger generations today have truly become a hook up culture, that emphasizes hyper sexualization with little commitment to a relationship.  Many women find themselves giving in to the whims of men simply to feel desirable and receive some personal attention.

Unfortunately, pornography has become rampant and considered as part of the norms of our current society.  Lustful acts are certainly not new and have been in place since the beginning of humans, and even the Bible documents much of this from a couple thousand years ago.  I doubt that our society will change from this hypersexual norm we have found ourselves in, but individuals can at least begin to combat this epidemic within themselves.  Pornography is detrimental in many ways, in the back drops and backgrounds of the film industry, and it is certainly not a victimless business.