The College Fix

The latest column from Julie Baumgardner, president of First Things First, offers a great summary of how porn is destroying men, based on the research from Dr. Phil Zimbardo, a psychology professor at Stanford University, as well as Dr. Gary Wilson, who has studied the neuroscience behind porn watching.

The long and the short of it – porn causes: Erectile dysfunction. Depression. Social anxiety. Severe memory impairment. The list goes on and on, really.

Baumgardner writes:

“Dr. Phil Zimbardo, a psychology professor at Stanford University, discussed the demise of guys, stating that boys are flaming out academically and wiping out socially with girls and sexually with women.

… According to Wilson, most boys seek porn by age 10, when they are driven by a brain that is suddenly fascinated by sex. Thanks to high-speed Internet, a boy has access to unending novelty. With each new image, his brain releases dopamine. As long as a guy can keep clicking, he will keep going.

Eventually his brain wires itself to everything associated with porn such as: Being alone, constant clicking, voyeurism, shock and surprise. This conflicts with learning about real sex, which involves interaction with a real person, courtship, commitment, touching, being touched and emotional connection.

In 2009, a Canadian researcher attempting to conduct research on the impact of porn could not find any college males who weren’t using porn and therefore had no control group for his research. He asked 20 male students who had been using porn for at least a decade if they thought porn was affecting them or their relationships with women. All said they didn’t think so. However, many of these males were dealing with social anxiety, performance anxiety, depression and concentration problems.

“Of all the activities on the Internet, porn has the most potential to be addictive,” said Wilson. “Everything in the porn user’s life is boring except porn.”

Interestingly, there are thousands of men, young and old, who are giving up porn because it is killing their sexual performance.

… Wilson said “widespread youthful erectile dysfunction has never been seen before. This is the only symptom that gets their attention.”

Meanwhile, at universities across the country, porn is heralded as something to be cherished, enjoyed, admired. Consider these stories from The College Fix, all published within the last two months:

* Washington University in St. Louis hosted a panel of porn stars who talked to students about what it’s like to work in the industry, and spoke on their most interesting sexual experiences, among other topics. Click here to read.

* As part of the University of Chicago’s inaugural “sex week,” the school flew in Axel Braun, the director of more than 400 pornographic films, for a Q-and-A. The school also screened one of his films, “Star Wars XXX: A Porn Parody.” Click here to read.

* In a talk advertised by the University of Missouri and well-attended by college students, a “crowdsourced porn” entrepreneur recruited college students to join the online movement, telling them it’s an easy way to make a few bucks and pay down student loans. Click here to read.

* University of Pennsylvania has become the latest Ivy League school to offer “Sex Week” to its students, and its inaugural foray boasted workshops with a porn peddler, exotica writer, vibrator aficionado, orgasm expert, and masturbation tutorial, among other events. Click here to read.

* A Pasadena City College class called “Navigating Pornography” is devoted entirely to studying porn. Click here to read.

It’s too bad colleges and academics don’t spent as much time studying the negative ramifications of porn addiction as they do shoving it down kids’ throats.

Jennifer Kabbany is associate editor of The College Fix.

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