Is Internet Porn Making Young Men Impotent?

[MightyHypnotic]

Ahhh,let's see..... basically they're saying that too much masturbation to porn is changing how your brain affects your manmeat's reaction to actual sex. In other words, it doesn't and you're addicted. Something like that

http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/fea ... nt-w503299

[Void]

This is so not a thing. At least the article closes with the opinions of actual experts, who all speak sense. I particularly liked the guy who suddenly had emotional feelings again after stopping his porn use.

[Mr. X]

I would imagine it actually diffuses men so they aren't on the jazz all the time.

[tallyho]

Wait a second ...do you mean to say that there is PORN ON THE INTERNET?!!!!!!!
How come no one told me? I just thought it was amazon, ebay and pictures of cats.

[batgirl1969]

It must work the opposite for women....look what it did for me!!!

[Femina]

Every now and again I think the 'experts' get worried that people are forgetting about them and write up a piece of nonsense just so that they an say 'the experts say...' You see it a lot with how Wine is good for you... then it isn't... then it is again! Figure this is the same sort of thing.

What exactly does impotent even mean? Cause the ability to 'keep it in your pants' I've always thought was the sign of an intelligent guy in control of himself, and the horndogs more as simple minded boobs driving mostly on instinct... am I wrong on this one? Does frequent sex make guys think and behave any better than masturbation? Such hasn't been my experience with anyone I've ever dated or hung out with.

[Imagineer]

This isn't a case of a scientist pop-culturing his study in order to get enough attention to get non-scientist purseholders to fund his next study.

This is the much much much more common phenomenon of a writer needing a story, hearing about a cult with a hook, and producing the column inches or word count required to get another paycheck. Notice the experts in this story were the ones responding to a reporter for debunking purposes. We shouldn't criticize scientists who competently perform this valuable public service.

What I find interesting about this anti-pornography religious crusade masquerading as science is that it claims the opposite effect such crusaders usually claim. Isn't the truism about pornography that it gives people ideas their lily-white minds wouldn't have otherwise conceived and then forces them to commit violence against others by acting it out? Can't have it both ways, fuckers.

[Mr. X]

What exactly does impotent even mean? Cause the ability to 'keep it in your pants' I've always thought was the sign of an intelligent guy in control of himself, and the horndogs more as simple minded boobs driving mostly on instinct... am I wrong on this one? Does frequent sex make guys think and behave any better than masturbation? Such hasn't been my experience with anyone I've ever dated or hung out with.

I agree. I would imagine young men more keeping it in their pants is a good thing. Non-desirable men leaving women alone is a good thing for those women.

But it maybe the complaint is coming from women that men are not engaging them anymore which is pointless since women will say NO to most of these guys anyway.

I don't buy this inactivity is due to porn. I think men are just walking away for other reasons.

[Void]

I agree with Imagineer - this is just a quick and dirty effort to write a story with a provocative headline. The people that actually raised this idea weren't experts; they were random guys looking to pin their issues on something simple, or were convinced by others trying to pin it to something simple for them. The experts were actually pretty useful to this article, torpedoing the ridiculous idea and offering far more credible explanations.

Impotence is not being able to 'perform' when the moment arrives. It isn't unwillingness to chase after action; it's the inability to do anything when they get it. The melty man cometh, and so on. Certainly guys who experience non-compliance from their genitals like that would have their issues (as would their partners, I imagine) but the use of porn would be nowhere near the cause of it. I think, at least for guys, masturbation and sex are only distantly, tenuously related to one another.

As implied by the experts in the article, anxiety, low self-esteem and depression would be far more likely candidates. The reference to '13 or 14 year old boys' being unable to get it up is hardly surprising - much as teenagers are randy all the time, they're obviously going to experience massive amounts of uncertainty and anxiety with their first sexual encounters. What's actually shocking is that the author doesn't call out that old stereotype of male sexuality when 'Gabe' talks about how a 'stiff breeze' would be enough. It's that exact outlook (something is wrong with me!) which is far more culpable.

[shevek]

Mr. X is possibly referring to the ongoing growing phenomenon of MGTOW (Men Going Their Own Way) which things like porn help to facilitate. So, sure, there are probably a fair amount of men (young or not) walking away.

BTW, the anti-pornography crusade isn't just religious (Christianity, Islam) and family values-based (far-right, conservatism). There's also a strong far-left component to the anti-porn movement: basically whatever straight white males and capitalists enjoy (including porn) is what far leftists hate.

There's an area in my town where a good number of anarcho/anti-capitalist types live, and it's infested with "stop watching porn!" stickers. To be perfectly frank, I think that the people putting up these stickers are the heavily tattooed social-activist girls who aren't getting enough action, not even from their supposedly progressive boyfriends (who would sometimes prefer to watch porn...), and so that breeds a kind of unfulfilled resentment. I could be wrong, though.

[Imagineer]

That's a different crusade, focused on how porn supports the patriarchy, not on how porn makes men faulty patriarchs. The men/groups that prompted the article are on the latter crusade.

[shevek]

Beg to differ, Imagineer - I'm not sure that's the case. For one thing, the article is in Rolling Stone. And then it mentions TED and Vanity Fair. All of those sources are much more associated with leftist social-justice types (for example, Marvel editor and Kamala Khan co-creator Sana Amanat did a TED talk about her "brownness" or whatever) than they are with any conservative values advocates. And as far as actual science, the article itself admits that there's no conclusive medical proof.

[Imagineer]

Beg away, but you're letting your perception of the brand names you mention get in the way of the actual content of the article. The title is "Is Internet Porn Making Young Men Impotent?" -- the effect on men. Reboot Nation preaches the effect of porn on the brain and sexual satisfaction of the (male) porn viewer. The referenced TED talk reaffirms that view. Both pull quotes are about ED in boys and young men. The Vanity Fair article is about hookup culture, and the reference to the article is about male sexual performance. It's all about straight males and their enjoyment. There's no mention of the performers, no stretch to link porn to prostitution or trafficking, no mention of beauty standards -- clearly written by someone who's never even heard of Jezebel If it's your assertion that the article itself is an attack on pornography, then the article isn't doing itself any favors, painting the experts' point-of-view as unified, positive, and with unchallenged statements that say porn isn't the problem.

[Void]

I doubt the author had any agenda beyond having a clickable article. They had control of the narrative - they didn't need to include, nor even contact, the experts that beat up the idea. Even the dudes in the article claiming that this is a thing are probably only doing so because porn is an easy scapegoat. I don't see a particular crusade here one way or the other, least of all from a shadowy collection of women and non-white men who want to kill the joy of the white man. After all, women and non-white men also consume porn.

[shevek]

Fair enough, I looked into it and you're right. It's just clickbait.

[GeekyPornCritic]

Sadly, my state is on the verge of stating porn is a health hazard. This is utterly ridiculous. We have less marriages because of different dynamics in today's culture and economy. People are no longer pressured to marry their child's parent. College grads are having a tough time finding a quality job to pay the bills. Some people just want to hook up or wait longer to marry someone.