The Pornography Problem
Use of Internet Pornography and Men's Well-Being
Philaretou, Andreas G Mahfouz, Ahmed Y Allen, Katherine R International Journal of Men's Health
In their first large-scale study of online sexual activity, [Cooper], Boies, et al., (1999) reported that Cybersex users who spent 11 or more hours per week on various Cybersexual pursuits tended to experience a number of intrapersonal and interpersonal problems in their lives, of a financial, legal, occupational, relational, or personal nature (i.e., depression and anxiety). The researchers, however, noted that most Cybersex users considered their activity recreational, spending less than one hour per week in online sexual activities. In another study, Cooper, Putnam, Planchon, and Boies (1999) proposed three general Cybersex user categories: recreational, sexually compulsive, and at-risk. The first group pursues Cybersex activities for fewer than a couple of hours per week and does so strictly for sexual stimulation and entertainment. For such users, online sexual activities do not threaten their intrapersonal and interpersonal well-being. Eventually, recreational Cybersex users experience boredom with their pursuits and either decrease or abandon their Cybersexual behaviors (Leiblum, 1997). The sexually compulsive group includes individuals who have had sexual problems and who find Cybersex a convenient, discrete, and relatively inexpensive way to overcome them. Unfortunately, their Cybersexual pursuits become out of control and only come to worsen their initial sexual problems. The final at-risk category consists of individuals who find Cybersex an effective and efficient way to deal with the uncomfortable feelings of high stress, depression, dysthymia, and anxiety that tend to characterize their lives. These individuals often experience chronic difficulties accessing intimate emotions that would have enabled them to initiate and maintain meaningful interpersonal relationships (Kafka, 1993).
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Review
Although
pornography existed long before the internet, the cybersex world has made
explicit media more accessible than ever, with well over 100,000 Web sites
offering erotic photos, videos, live sex acts, and Web-cam strip sessions
(Carnes, 2001; Cooper, Boies, Maheu & Greenfield, 2001). We have seen an escalation in the number of
Visits to pornographic websites, with “some sites reporting as many as 50
million hits” (Worden, 2001). Although many of the users engaged in internet
pornography consider themselves to be “recreational users” According to the
Marital and Sexuality Centre and MSNBC (2002), 6.5% of the male Internet
population reported spending nearly six hours per week engaging in Cybersex.
(NB; Due to the quickly changing nature of the online environment, these
statistic are likely to have experience significant change in the last 12
years) Users who invest “an inordinate amount of their time, money, and energy
in the pursuit of Cybersex” are considered to be Cybersex compulsives, and it
has been identified that such individuals often experience effect on their
mental health negative in terms of “depression, anxiety, and problems with felt
intimacy with their real-life partners”. (Philaretou, Andreas G; Mahfouz, Ahmed Y; Allen, Katherine R – 2005)
The purpose
of this investigation is to clarify the intricacies and the effects of the use
of internet pornography on individual well-being through ethnographic (aimed at researching cultural phenomena) field
research. This study
has been designed answer the questions, “What are the various technological
characteristics that render Cybersex considerably appealing to recreational,
compulsive, and at-risk users?” that is, ‘what technological characteristics
exist that make cybersex so appealing to different users?’ and, “What are some
of the social-psychological characteristics of compulsive and at-risk users?”
in other words ‘what social-psychological characteristics can we use to
identify compulsive and at-risk users”.
The study
found, through an interview process; that the technological characteristics of
relative ease, anonymity, and affordability of establishing and maintaining
sexual interactions we appealing to recreational, compulsive, and to at-risk
users. Additional findings were, “that negative intrapersonal consequences for
Cybersex compulsives and at-risk users in terms of experiencing considerable
guilt, depression, anxiety, and a general inability to experience adequate
intimacy with real-life partners”
The information gathered
through the interview process also supported the findings of Kafka, 1993; Schneider, 1994, who identified a
compulsive user, as a user with “the inability to stop the activity and control
its intensity when he/she chooses to do so”, For example, one respondent
admitted to spending a maximum of 12 hours per week on internet pornography,
this man also admitted to “feeling guilty and depressed as a result”, another
respondent disclosed that he felt considerable guilt for “spending 14 hours per
week searching for free porno pictures.”
Through this
investigation, designed to
explore the intricacies and the effects of the use of internet
pornography, Philaretou, Andreas G Mahfouz, Ahmed Y Allen, and Katherine R have argued that the use of online media does have a negative effect on
the mental health of individuals, and without investigating any of the moral
significances of the cybersex world, they have highlighted the psychological
consequences of excessive use of internet pornography.
Reference
Philaretou, Andreas G Mahfouz, Ahmed Y Allen, Katherine R - Use of Internet Pornography and Men's Well-being - international Journal of Men's Health -
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