According to the report The Social Costs of Pornography: A Statement of Findings and Recommendations, “66 percent of 18- to 34-year-old men visit a pornographic site every month” and “Every second, there are about 28,258 Internet users viewing pornography.”
Many people choose not to view porn, so why are there many people who do? This is a huge question that should take into account many different subtopics that cannot be satisfied within a short article, so for now let us focus on the brain.
Speaking of “satisfied,” there are two pleasure systems in the brain: the exciting pleasure system and the satisfying pleasure system. For example, with the first we get excited thinking of a meal. In the second, we are satisfied when we eat the meal. In the exciting system, we think about the meal because we are lacking in a need, and in the satisfying system, our need is met. As we imagine our desire with excitement, dopamine-related hormones are released, asking for more as the need is not met. When we attain our need, we are satisfied and endorphins are released, leaving a person with an achieved feeling of peace.
Is pornography part of the exciting pleasure system or the satisfied pleasure system? Is pornography something that can fulfill a need (satisfied pleasure) or something that continues to leave you unsatisfied (excited) and asking for more?
Food is a basic need, but is pornography? Whatever need pornography claims to fill is actually a deeper need men and women have for love, intimacy and respect.
Pornography does not deter cheating, as “non-married persons who watched an X-rated movie in the last year were 65.1 percent more likely to report having had an extramarital affair,” according to The Social Costs of Pornography.
I have heard about people dying from a lack of food, but never from a lack of pornography, or at that rate, sex. In fact, author for Time Magazine Pamela Paul, who wrote “Pornified: How porn is transforming our lives, our relationships, and our families,” suggests from interviews with men and women in the fields of law, neuroscience, counseling, education that men and women can not only live without porn but that in refraining relationships, families and society at large would be better off.
It all comes back to asking ourselves what the purpose of these things are, what we are trying to attain and if those two answers coincide.
Casey Dail can be reached at [email protected]