Why pornography may be one of the most dangerous threats to our survival as a species.
Those who know me know I’m far from conservative in nature, but I’m always interested in the latest scientific research. The more we study it, the more we find how absolutely, positively and horrifically detrimental Pornography (or ‘Porn’ for short) is to the human brain.
In short, humans aren’t evolved to deal with the shear amount of ‘willing mates’ that people see in a typical porn viewing session. See, to the human brain, a pretend mate on the television or computer screen is the same thing as one in real life since the same chemicals are released.
The human brain is generally adapted to deal with 1 partner presenting themselves at one time. Maybe two, three or six if you’re as good as me (lol, just kidding.) But with Pornography, you can literally see dozens of new, novel, ‘willing mates’ within the matter of seconds.
This causes a huge, sustained spurt of dopamine, that again, the human brain is not equipped to deal with
The big problem with this is it desensitizes the brain to normal dopamine spurts. When the body has an unexpected influx of dopamine, it habituates to the new level. It literally downregulates (reduces the amount of receptors) in order to compensate to the inordinately ginormous surge of dopamine it’s now experiencing.
Now, due to habituation and novelty seeking, the user then looks for more and more hardcore pornographic scenes in order to compensate for the lack of dopamine being released at the stuff they found enjoyable yesterday.
Johnny started with a relatively innocent issue of Playboy, then all of a sudden he’s watching a video of 7 midgets, snow white, a gerbil and Condeleza Rice doing things that are illegal in 47 countries. And worst of all, now the tiny, measly dopamine spurt people get from normal mates like their wife/husband/girlfriend/boyfriend/girl-or-boy-you-met-at-the-bar does basically nothing for them unless they have Happy, Dopey, Bashful and Sneezy wearing leather chaps with them. And even that fetish will soon become mundane and boring.
Worst of all, it’s reducing their attraction to real live women or men, which will literally take them out of the gene pool and making sure they never mate.
If that wasn’t bad enough, by desensitizing their brains to Dopamine, people likely become lethargic, tired, unmotivated, introverted and possibly even lack self confidence even when they’re not watching porn.
Sounds far fetched? Well the evidence is there. There are tons of Anecdotal reports and scientific studies finding that people who quit pornography all of a sudden feel energized, confident, and more outgoing. This is women AND men. Lots of really weird stuff. People start getting all sorts of extra attention from the opposite sex as well, as if other partner senses it. Look up “NoFap women” or “NoFap” on YouTube, and you’ll get a sense of how drastic these things are.
It’s not just porn though. Caffeine and smoking too. I suspect Television, Video Games and too much Facebook would be problematic as well. Or at least with content that’s overstimulating. I remember how we would always hear about “desensitization to violence,” well witnessing violence results in large, unnatural dopamine spurts as well.
I’ve tried to reduce my exposure to television for years (with the exception of some good documentaries) and it’s been hugely beneficial. Who cares if I don’t know what Kim Kardashian ate for brunch. I’m sure I’ll survive.
If I’m sounding like a killjoy, taking away all the things people enjoy in life, it’s not that at all. It’s really just about not wasting precious dopamine on things that are unproductive or unhealthy. The dopamine someone just wasted watching Rambo shoot up 735 Vietnamese guys or Jenna Jameson peal and eat an entire banana without using her hands could have been used to motivate them to exercise, or build the company they’ve always dreamed of. Or anything really.
Don’t waste precious neurochemicals on pretend things like TV and Video Games. They’re meant to motivate humans to be awesome. Nature will mercilessly rip you out of the gene pool if you waste your neurochemicals on things that aren’t real like Video Games, television, or habits like too much caffeine and smoking. Or snorting methamphetamine, of course. Don’t do that either.
For more information on the neurobiology of internet pornography, check out: http://yourbrainonporn.com