[Spooky23]

It’s acceptable to have a position or opinion, civilly stated.

Any of the common “vices” like gambling, porn, Skinner box games, some drugs are difficult for people to manage. That dopamine hit burns behavioral pathways into the brain and is tough to undo.

[angrais]

Why are you (and others in this thread) grouping porn with drugs and gambling? To me, this does not make any sense.

Watching porn is not a bad thing. Obviously, if you're talking about addiction then perhaps, but do you think people are addicted to porn (on average) to the extent others are to those other vices?

Likewise, gambling and drugs impact you both physically and mentally, whereas the evidence for porn's impact on either is questionable at best.

[Spooky23]

Watching porn in of itself is no more a bad thing than playing poker or a video game. I’m not making a moral judgment.

Like gambling, it’s easy to fall into a behavior pattern that is similar to gambling. ( https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4600144/ ) I’m not sure of the pervasiveness of gambling or porn addiction, it isn’t my field.

There’s a reason why online porn pivoted to a model similar to YouTube — it’s a model that drives engagement, and you very commonly hear evidence that YouTube has a very significant addiction, even for toddlers.

[angrais]

I see, good point about falling into similar patterns regarding gambling.

Although I disagree. I'm not sure if porn has a model that drives engagement?

Let's be honest, are most people really watching porn, having a wank, then watching the rest of the porn? Probably not, so I am not sure how the engagement model of porn is similar to YouTube.

Having said that, with OnlyFans and other such sites, the porn landscape is certainly evolving, and perhaps it is that landscape (than porn hub) that is more engaging because there's the human element, e.g., you can ask an only fans person to say your name whereas you cannot when watching videos.

[dqv]

Anything artificial that directly affects the brain's reward pathways is bound to cause addiction. We can't, in good faith, argue that artificial food is addictive, or that artificial opium is more addictive than regular opium, and then, in the same breath, consider preposterous the idea that artificial sex is. (And let's not argue over semantics here, to pre-empt any argument about what constitutes artificial sex: a restaurant doesn't necessarily serve artificial food any more than a prostitute serves artificial sex)

>Let's be honest, are most people really watching porn, having a wank, then watching the rest of the porn? I'm not sure if porn has a model that drives engagement?

It's very easy, incentivized even, to open 10 tabs and switch through each to "optimize" the orgasm, finding the exact clip to reach orgasm. And much like social media influencers take many different photos and pick the ones that are the best, the same is done with the creation of porn. People don't finish the porn videos, you're right, but a lot of people also don't finish Youtube videos either. I think it's irrelevant whether they're finishing them - what drives engagement here is discovery of novel pornographic content. There are almost infinite possibilities for what one can watch. The problem with porn today is it's artificial and plentiful. So the model is to abuse our psychology to seek novelty as well as our desire to have many sexual partners. The engagement is in the desire to see many new and novel scenes at each session and the user's anticipation of another "porn session".

[beebeepka]

Apparently everyone is exactly the same and the only people whose lives haven't been ruined buy these vices, as you call them, are the ones who haven't tried them. I am done here

[Spooky23]

Not sure why you have a hang up about this.

I enjoy drinking alcohol and have no issues with it, but that doesn’t mean acknowledging that alcoholism is a thing is a problem or some judgemental act.

[haswell]

The potential downsides associated alcohol consumption are well understood, and this understanding has permeated most societies.

The same cannot be said for porn consumption. While studies exist, this is not a well understood topic, and big claims are going to be met with skepticism and demands for evidence.

[Spooky23]

That makes sense, as alcohol use and abuse has been with us for a millennia or more. The internet is a tad bit newer.

If you look, you will find plenty of inquiry, debate and research into the topic.