Pandoras Box in the living room

[Bozo Erectus]

Right now a mass uncontrolled experiment is being conducted on entire societies: internet porn. Hang on, keep reading, Im not going to launch into a rant about how immoral it is, and our precious family values are at risk, and all that usual crap. But the reality is that for the first time ever, the average person has total, unlimited access to the most hardcore pornography imaginable, and unimaginable. Such a thing never existed before. How were societies changed by the development of the printing press? How about if along with Bibles, the first printing shops had started cranking out huge amounts of hardcore porn, and it was given away free to everyone, with zero restrictions, 24 hours a day? What sort of world would we be living in today? Its not hypothetical, thats what we have today with unlimited internet porn in everyones home, 24 hours a day. Over time, that has to have an impact on how the society views sexuality. There also have to be many other ripple effects on society that touch on politics, religion, the mainstream media, public discourse, you name it.

The experiment has been running for around 20 years now. What effects do you think are apparent already? What effects on society do you think would occur if it was left running for 100 years?

edit: BTW, dont necessarily try and think of only negative effects, for all we know there could be positive effects.

 

[IglooDame]

One effect I can point to has been the number of people I've met (online and off) that have said "I thought I was the only person in the world perverted in this (fill in here) way, but I jumped on the internet and realized there were lots of people like me, I'm not 'abnormal' after all..."

Of course, some people will call this a negative; I personally call it a positive.

 

[warpus]

Positive: People aren't as afraid of sex and don't view it, generally, as a "bad thing", which is what is taught by the world religions and more conservative viewpoints.

Negative: Creation of sexual expectations with no basis in reality.

 

[Whomp]

Couldn't you say the internet/PDA's have changed everything for the good and the bad?
Porn has been around longer than before Debbie did Dallas at the theater.

I can think of other things substantially worse that the internet has provided that have just come to fruition.

What effects? The world is flat if you have access.

 

[bathsheba666]

Do you think the extra strain on the wrist caused by all that additional clicking will result in much in the way of evolutionary adaptation?

 

[Bozo Erectus]

Do you think the extra strain on the wrist caused by all that additional clicking will result in much in the way of evolutionary adaptation?

Oh yeah that reminds me: please lets make a concerted effort to keep the discussion PG.

 

[Bozo Erectus]

One effect I can point to has been the number of people I've met (online and off) that have said "I thought I was the only person in the world perverted in this (fill in here) way, but I jumped on the internet and realized there were lots of people like me, I'm not 'abnormal' after all..."

And as that continued to happen over the course of a generation or two, becoming more and more commonplace, how do you think it would impact the society?

 

[nihilistic]

Do you think the extra strain on the wrist caused by all that additional clicking will result in much in the way of evolutionary adaptation?

Well, your "clicking" is neither going to alter your (gamete's) dna nor is it going to confer any reproductive advantages, so no.

 

[Little Raven]

The experiment has been running for around 20 years now. What effects do you think are apparent already? What effects on society do you think would occur if it was left running for 100 years?

Well, I suspect it leads to a lot of unrealistic sexual expectations...especially among young people. But I'm not convinced that's all that new...more likely, old unrealistic expectations have simply been replaced with new ones.

I think there's also an unfortunate trend among some girls to try and compete with the electronic vision, which is of course impossible, and leads to unhappy results. But I can't hold the porn completely responsible for this: if a girl has no self-respect, she's going to get into trouble regardless.

Finally, as IglooDude said, it does bring like-minded individuals together, many of whom are surprised and delighted to discover they aren't the only perverts out there. And no, that isn't always a good thing.

 

[Masquerouge]

Positive: People aren't as afraid of sex and don't view it, generally, as a "bad thing", which is what is taught by the world religions and more conservative viewpoints.

Negative: Creation of sexual expectations with no basis in reality.

That pretty much sums it up.

Also, the impact will be a lot different depending on which society you're looking at. A lot of societies were much more porn-tolerant than the US even before the Internet happened.

 

[Bozo Erectus]

Couldn't you say the internet/PDA's have changed everything for the good and the bad?
Porn has been around longer than before Debbie did Dallas at the theater.

Of course it has, but for the first time ever, Johnny Citizen has complete unrestricted access to it 24 hours day, in total privacy (not really but it seems to be private, anyway). His wife Jane Citizen has the same access, and little Jimmy and Janet Citizens too. Guns have been around longer than the internet also, but if every single person was suddenly granted unlimited access to them in the privacy of their homes, I dont think anyone would have doubts about it having an impact on the society.

What effects? The world is flat if you have access.

I dont know what 'the world is flat' means.

 

[Whomp]

Of course it has, but for the first time ever, Johnny Citizen has complete unrestricted access to it 24 hours day, in total privacy (not really but it seems to be private, anyway). His wife Jane Citizen has the same access, and little Jimmy and Janet Citizens too. Guns have been around longer than the internet also, but if every single person was suddenly granted unlimited access to them in the privacy of their homes, I dont think anyone would have doubts about it having an impact on the society.

It's a point but is porn that bad? Is it that much different than kids who had Playboys under the bed or my buddy Mr. Skin who collects PG and R rated nude scenes?

I guess what I'm asking is being a voyeur going to kill someone?

I dont know what 'the world is flat' means.

It's a book by Thomas L. Friedman The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century.
He believes the world is flat in the sense that the competitive playing fields between industrial and emerging market countries are leveling. These changes are made possible through the Internet, fiber-optics, and the PC.

 

[IglooDame]

Well, I suspect it leads to a lot of unrealistic sexual expectations...especially among young people. But I'm not convinced that's all that new...more likely, old unrealistic expectations have simply been replaced with new ones.

I think there's also an unfortunate trend among some girls to try and compete with the electronic vision, which is of course impossible, and leads to unhappy results. But I can't hold the porn completely responsible for this: if a girl has no self-respect, she's going to get into trouble regardless.

Finally, as IglooDude said, it does bring like-minded individuals together, many of whom are surprised and delighted to discover they aren't the only perverts out there. And no, that isn't always a good thing.

It has been a good thing where I'm sitting, but then again I'm talking about strictly consensual perversions. I'd say being exposed to a "like-minded community" would even reinforce certain positive social mores like "safe, sane, consensual" where discussion (and inherent rejection) of counterexamples is frequent. I obviously can't speak for those who prefer or require unwilling participants.

And Bozo, your comparing of unlimited access to internet being eqiuvalent to unlimited access to a gun brings up the question of parental supervision/control. In most cases the supervision (related to both) starts off strict and gradually lessens as maturity manifests itself.

 

[Kozmos]

Ahem I present the following:

http://forporn.ytmnsfw.com/

 

[warpus]

I think the real question is:

Has the lack of easily available pornography harmed the development of the human species beyond repair? Has the internet arrived too late in providing unlimited pornography to the human race? Will we ever recover from this?

Discuss.

 

[Eran of Arcadia]

Hmm, I would have to say that if we as a species are in some way dependent on something that didn't exist for the first 150,000 odd years of our existence, then we are pretty much deserving of extinction.

 

[emzie]

Dunno. I do know I didn't expect to be slapped the first time I walked up to a milf and asked if she wanted to make a movie with me.

 

[emzie]

Ahem I present the following:

http://forporn.ytmnsfw.com/

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5430343841227974645 imho.

 

[Bozo Erectus]

It's a point but is porn that bad? Is it that much different than kids who had Playboys under the bed or my buddy Mr. Skin who collects PG and R rated nude scenes?

Note Im not saying that porn is bad. Im not saying its good either. Im saying unlimited access to pornography, in the home, is a fact of life now. That has an impact. The question Im asking is, what effect will that have over time on culture and society.

And Bozo, your comparing of unlimited access to internet being eqiuvalent to unlimited access to a gun brings up the question of parental supervision/control. In most cases the supervision (related to both) starts off strict and gradually lessens as maturity manifests itself.

I dont think that the internet porn pipeline only has an impact on children. Sure, in theory anyway, parents are supervising the kids online activities. But whos supervising Mom and Dad?

 

[nihilistic]

Hmm, I would have to say that if we as a species are in some way dependent on something that didn't exist for the first 150,000 odd years of our existence, then we are pretty much deserving of extinction.

Well, first of all, we existed for more than 150,000 years. That species cut-off point is not meant to be absolute at all. Secondly, what are you claiming to have not existed in these 150k years? Masturbation? We have been jacking ourselves off way longer than we could be called homo-sapiens. All of our ape and monkey cousins masturbate. Porn? Please remember that we as a species weren't always clothed.

To that end, one of the things that fits that description of yours, a habit that humanity recently picked up and become dependent on, is clothing. You can stop pretending to be a naturalist now.