Okay, okay, let's not get too excited about the "science" about the damage that porn causes. I would like to pointed to these studies. It seems like preliminary research at best, relying heavily on case studies. We have to be careful when we interpret prelim research like this that we don't take the idea farther than the study recommends. That's not being scientific.
Did you follow the link I provided? In the comments thread, the author's article mentions thousands of postings on many many different web forums, including forums otherwise totally unrelated to sexuality, such as bodybuilding forums and so on. Granted, it's a self-selected sample; however, the author is very careful to use words like "might" and "may" rather than "will," and to qualify his hypothesis with phrases like "for some people."
Regardless, I think that we can agree that ED problems are NOT normal for twenty-something men, and yet the article's author finds many, many men of that age raising exactly that complaint, and they all have frequent internet porn viewing in common.
Here's another site that gathers all of this information together:
yourbrainonporn.com .
MichelleZed said:
There have also been other studies elsewhere that find that porn is harmless--or not only that, that there is no evidence it causes sexism, and that it may even reduce sexual violence.
Here's an article in Scientific American you can check out which references several recent porn-related studies.
Not one of those asks or addresses the questions of ED and delayed ejaculation, which are the very complaints of the young men discussed in the
Psychology Today article.
I can say, from my own experience, as a man who has viewed internet porn since the days of dialup, that although I do not have ED problems, I recognize some of the other symptoms, such as delayed ejaculation (yeah, I know that this at first this sounds like it would be a good thing, until you realize that it includes not being able to get off at all when in bed, and that's happened to me a handful of times. Backing off on the naughty websites has always cured it).
MichelleZed said:
Let's be careful not to make generalizations like "porn damages marriages". Mainstream psychology generally views infidelity as damaging to marriages too, and here we all are, proving that wrong.
Careful with that one. Most people here (I think) do not equate "ethical non-monogamy" with "infidelity." To most, "infidelity" means "cheating," and I doubt you'll disagree with the claim that cheating damages marriages.
Anyway, we've hijacked Mr. CheeseHead's thread. I only wanted to sound a cautionary note; I did not want to imply that Mr. CheeseHead was wrong to "take matters into his own hands" when he felt the need. I think a good movie with some erotic scenes might be a better and safer choice than internet porn, though. Most such movies suck on ice, but there are some that don't.
As a completely friendly aside, the third time I visited Wisconsin (the first was an overnight motorcycle blast to Minnesota, dodging some spectacular thunderstorms along the way, and the second was the return leg of that trip, really no time spent to see or do anything), the discovery of chocolate cheddar cheese fudge was almost enough to make me believe in the existence of a higher power. That stuff is
AWESOME.
Best,
MT