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by throw_pm23 1261 days ago
Was it always so widely accessible? What did people do when it wasn't?
2 comments

Pornography has historically been about as accessible as any other form of media. At first it was limited to hand-drawn on paper [1] (just like any other content before the printing press). Woodblock and later cooper-plate printing made it easier to mass produce (just like everything else). Photography was almost immediately used to produce pornography, as was motion picture film. And of course, the internet made it drastically easier to distribute digitally.

In short, pornography has always followed the existing means of media production and distribution.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turin_Erotic_Papyrus

I agree with you, but quantity takes on a quality of its own.

By analogy, sweet fruits and honey have been around and universally enjoyed since the dawn of time.

Yet, guzzling down gallons of high-fructose-corn-syrup each day is relatively new and has made half of the population obese.

I grew up in the 80's/90's and there was a whole trade system in school.

Swapping magazines and VHS tapes.

It's not a new thing.

There is an inherent rate-limiting in trading anything with others. Physical media gets lost/confiscated and you can only re-read the same magazine so many times before you get bored and move on.

Nobody invited you to an endless all-you-can-watch telethon of fresh content. That's where we are today.

It is not new, but it is plausible that through wide availability and deliberate exploitation of addictive behaviour ("Mindgeek"?) it has recently reached a state where it may tear society apart.
I think to argue that pornography alone is tearing society apart is a massive over statement.

Caused some overly-inflated expectations in the bedroom sure. Destroyed society? Nah

But those magazines were/tapes were way more tamer than what we have now.

Kids can access extreme porn with a few clicks easily. Something is definitely wrongh here.