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Did porn warp me forever?

salon.com

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Re: Did porn warp me forever?

#131

Post by veidr »

pekk wrote: post #112
FrojoS wrote: post #108

From my favorite Paul Graham essay, The Acceleration of Addictiveness http://www.paulgraham.com/addiction.html " Societies eventually develop antibodies to addictive new things. I've seen that happen with cigarettes. When cigarettes first appeared, they spread the way an infectious disease spreads through a previously isolated population. Smoking rapidly became a (statistically) normal thing. [...] As knowledge sprea…

Characterizing porn as "more concentrated" does not in any way demonstrate that it is dangerous.

I don't think that anybody is saying "it is dangerous", just "the ubiquitous and instant availability of virtually any kind of high-definition porn is a relatively new thing, and its effects might be different than the wood block prints and paper magazines enjoyed by previous generations".

Re: Did porn warp me forever?

#132

Post by freshhawk »

dalke wrote: post #60
freshhawk wrote: post #23

Betteridge's law of headlines.

Nope. You can't knee-jerk exclaim "Betteridge's law" when you see a "?". It's meant for news articles. This article is an introspective "life story" article and doesn't meet the preconditions. For example, the previous life story article ending with a question mark on Salon was "Can I date a Republican?", and the clear answer from the article is "yes." The one before that is "Should the terminally ill control their d…

In the case of Betteridge's Law the point being made is that if someone has actual evidence then the headline reflects the evidence. It states the fact that there is new knowledge about something. If it's just speculation or useless fluff then they add a question mark.

And yes, it was not made for opinion pieces or personal narratives and, like in the examples you give, doesn't generally work in these situations.

My intention was just to point out that it happens to apply here because the headline is childish link bait.

The author covers in the piece that it wasn't really porn that lead to this and it's not going to be "forever" either if he does something about it.

Re: Did porn warp me forever?

#133

Post by Falling3 »

_ddkb wrote: post #116
CKKim wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I am addicted to porn"..."I would look about once per week" It seems odd to me that being addicted to porn would go with only looking "about once per week". I think I understand how this could still be technically an addiction, but compared to other addictions and - I imagine - especially porn addictions, it seems rather bizarre. Certainly if pornography was only being consumed once a week then the rate of let's cal…

The definition of addiction I heard that I agree with was something like "An activity that causes an overall negative effect on your life that you do not have control over." This definitely fit with my experience. It was definitely a cycle for me. Alcoholics do not have to have a drink every day to be an alcoholic. In fact, one of the points of the AA program that people need to learn is they are always an alcoholic.…

There are many criticism towards the AA program... just because Bill Wilson think you're always an alcoholic does not make it so.

Re: Did porn warp me forever?

#134

Post by PaperclipTaken »

xk_id wrote: post #122

"9/10th* of the working of the gonads is to vitalise the whole body – brain included. If the gonads would secrete a blue fluid, the whole body would be blue, and the brain very blue – and even the bones would be slightly blue. […] It is quite often the case that very creative people have very active gonads." * fundamentally true; not correct, but fundamentally true.

This sounds compelling but I'm not willing to trust it. Where did you get this information?

Re: Did porn warp me forever?

#135

Post by jrockway »

troutwine wrote: post #103
_ddkb wrote: post #85

I know this is outing myself but this is my personal experience. I won't post anonymously in case anyone wants to contact me. I came to the realization about 2 years that I am addicted to porn. For anyone out there struggling with the same thing, it can get better and yes, it is probably having a negative influence on your life. Previously I would look about once per week but in the past 6 months, I have probably vie…

> I am addicted to porn. ... I would look about once per week... I don't understand: this seems incongruous. Watching pornography once a week doesn't come across as an uncontrolled, impulse behaviour. How does one suffer from an addiction and satisfy it but once a week? Do forgive me if I come across as doubting your word. That is not my intention in the least.

He said he enjoyed it a lot when he did it, therefore it's an addiction.

This is America: if you like something, it's probably bad for you.

(Less sarcastically: I remember reading that addicts don't enjoy their addiction anymore; they do it because they have to keep doing it. Kind of like me and "someone is wrong on the Internet".)

Re: Did porn warp me forever?

#136

Post by xk_id »

PaperclipTaken wrote: post #134
xk_id wrote: post #122

"9/10th* of the working of the gonads is to vitalise the whole body – brain included. If the gonads would secrete a blue fluid, the whole body would be blue, and the brain very blue – and even the bones would be slightly blue. […] It is quite often the case that very creative people have very active gonads." * fundamentally true; not correct, but fundamentally true.

This sounds compelling but I'm not willing to trust it. Where did you get this information?

From Alfred Korzybski, who claimed he got it from a physician.

Re: Did porn warp me forever?

#137

Post by noonespecial »

nikster wrote: post #99
Flimm wrote: post #16

I couldn't finish the article because I found the examples too disturbing. Just a warning for those of you who aren't very familiar with online porn. Could someone give me a summary of the article?

If you cant even read an article about porn then you certainly have bigger problems than the author of said article.

There are people from every walk of life frequenting HN these days. I'm guessing the world of online porn can be pretty disturbing for the uninitiated.

The fact that an average person can't summit Everest while a practiced climber can is not a disparagement on the former.

Re: Did porn warp me forever?

#138

Post by jrockway »

ntumlin wrote: post #107
simplify wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems that there is: http://yourbrainonporn.com/why-do-i-find-porn-more-exciting-...

I'm sure that site has no bias what so ever.

You know you've chosen the right side of an argument when everyone one the other side links to a single quack website backed up by anecdotes from "An Internet User".

Re: Did porn warp me forever?

#139

Post by _ddkb »

jrockway wrote: post #135
troutwine wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I am addicted to porn. ... I would look about once per week... I don't understand: this seems incongruous. Watching pornography once a week doesn't come across as an uncontrolled, impulse behaviour. How does one suffer from an addiction and satisfy it but once a week? Do forgive me if I come across as doubting your word. That is not my intention in the least.

He said he enjoyed it a lot when he did it, therefore it's an addiction. This is America: if you like something, it's probably bad for you. (Less sarcastically: I remember reading that addicts don't enjoy their addiction anymore; they do it because they have to keep doing it. Kind of like me and "someone is wrong on the Internet".)

That is not what I meant. I am not against porn. If it is good for you then that is fine. It is not good for me and just because you may not have a problem with something doesn't mean other people do not. I have no problem drinking a beer but I understand that some people do have a problem drinking.

> I remember reading that addicts don't enjoy their addiction anymore; they do it because they have to keep doing it.

Yes, I can relate to this. At the beginning it may not have been an addiction but it did morph into one over several years.

Re: Did porn warp me forever?

#140

Post by _ddkb »

Falling3 wrote: post #133
_ddkb wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The definition of addiction I heard that I agree with was something like "An activity that causes an overall negative effect on your life that you do not have control over." This definitely fit with my experience. It was definitely a cycle for me. Alcoholics do not have to have a drink every day to be an alcoholic. In fact, one of the points of the AA program that people need to learn is they are always an alcoholic.…

There are many criticism towards the AA program... just because Bill Wilson think you're always an alcoholic does not make it so.

I understand the 12 step programs are not perfect. No program is perfect. I don't understand your point. Are you trying to say that I'm not addicted? It took me many years to realise that this is an addiction for me but it did help me to admit that. I do believe in that part of the program that it needs to be considered a problem before a person can work on improving it.

Edit: I can't respond to your comment below but thanks for your follow up.

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