I read an article from the web site First Things that made some obvious observations…but much in the way of the boiling frog, perhaps something we can’t so easily see.
Here are a few key passages with minimal comment and for what they’re worth…which is an awful lot.
Many people still have trouble conceptualizing the unique pathologies of modern digital pornography. For those who grew up with Playboy magazine, the word “porn” may still connote hard-to-get photographs of beautiful women, cheerfully showing off their bodies alongside banal content like political columns or movie reviews. The porn user of yesteryear could give himself to lust, but only after age and money enabled it, and even then, most were obliged to keep one foot in reality given the trappings of physical media.
Internet pornography is to Playboy magazine what fentanyl is to whiskey. The world of online porn…is a world bereft of the limitations and tethers of the last century. Children routinely access it. Smartphones keep it near users at all times. Curated genres and “communities” guarantee that no fantasy is too brutal or degrading that it can’t be found.
In my recollection, “only after age and money enabled it” is a true statement. The deal was to sneak around for it. It was a rite of passage. Have a campout sleepover in the woods and here’s Johnny with something he snuck out of his dad’s stash.
Not so now. Johnny and all of his friends don’t have to sneak out into the woods anymore. And the extent to which they rely on their dads only goes as far as the cell phone he pays for that brings the stuff right under the covers of their own beds — every night, and pretty much whatever they want. No wonder…
Another quote:
Pornography is a hallucinogen. It reframes human sexuality in utterly unreal ways. Characters in pornographic content portray sex the way Harry Potter portrays magic: as something that can happen for anyone, at any time, to any degree imaginable. For young men in particular, this narrative of sex cultivates a deeply dissonant conception of personhood and intimacy, one that is constantly confused and frustrated by real life.
I’m a firm believer that pornography has no redeeming qualities and is good for nothing but making your life a mess somewhere along the line. It affects the brain. It creates men who see women as objects to be used (a Princeton study of brain activity when exposed to sexualized pictures of women suggests this in some men). Thankfully, I’ve been (mostly) spared. I’m certainly not perfect. I’m ashamed of my part in supporting the industry when I was much younger, but I’m all the more thankful that God has been so good as to take away the desire and give me instead a deeper love and respect for “the wife of my youth” (Proverbs 5:18 — but read all of Proverbs 5 for that matter). I pray that you all can see that joy in your own lives, no matter where you are on the journey.
The article: Tyler Robinson and the Violence of Porn – First Things