Rising access to the internet globally has enabled people to easily look for almost anything on the digital space on the go. Online pornography is one thing that has been widely available to people as it has also led to sexual health experts warning of adverse effects of watching too much porn.
Lending credence to the notion of porn ruining sex lives of people by giving them unrealistic expectations, researchers have identified several people who like porn so much that they prefer it over real sex. Now this effect driven by porn addiction has been classified as a new sexual orientation called pornosexuality.
Pornosexuality is different from other existing sexual orientation since it is learned behaviour and involves a complete absence of attachment and bonding with others. Watching too much of porn can desensitise people’s brain and body as getting off online without the need for intimacy and effort in a relationship is appealing to certain people.
In a time when a man moved court in the US to demand that people should have right to marry their computers since they make love to the machines, pornosexuality emerging as an orientation is no surprise. But psychologists say it may be just a way of masking insecurities and a fear of intimacy.
A self-declared pornosexual recently wrote that he would choose porn over real sex since the latter involves love and intimacy, while he found porn easier. He wrote that porn teaches people to do away with the song and dance of modern dating and be happy only in their own company.
Porn is known to have addictive effects as a woman moved to the Supreme Court in India recently claiming her husband’s porn addiction had ruined her marriage, and another boy from quota said he was sick of his classmates being obsessed about sex. The habit has also been tied to erectile dysfunction, and a 13-year-old boy convicted of sexual assault in the UK also cited porn as a factor.
More than the effects of porn and the preference to go for digital experiences rather than real intimacy, this phenomenon of people seeking to take the easy way out in isolation may say a lot about society at large.
