Research on the social and psychological effects of pornography is still in its infancy, but researchers and psychologists are beginning to look closer into how porn could be influencing personal relationships.
What we know
Nicole Johnson, a licensed US-based counselor, has spent time throughout her career working with sexual offenders and teaching the public about several different aspects of sexuality. She believes that pornography has the potential to affect not only the person watching it, but the people around them as well. “In a nutshell, when pornography use becomes excessive, romantic relationships can suffer,” Johnson says in an email. “When one partner uses porn at a high frequency, there can be a tendency to withdraw emotionally from the relationship.” She cites a Perry and Davis study that found couples affected by porn use in 2006 were more much more likely to break up in 2012.
With that said, pornography isn’t always a bad thing. The major factor may not be that people are watching porn. It’s likely rather that they’re watching porn in excessive amounts, without their partners knowing about it.
Porn’s potential
Porn has the potential to build a healthy foundation for a relationship. “I do believe that erotic material showing respectful, consensual, caring, relationship-oriented themes can actually be educational,” Johnson says. “It can be helpful for couples if they need to learn some sexual techniques to increase reciprocal pleasure or if their sex life is in a rut.” The private nature of the subject can make it difficult to address, but the fact is that everyone can benefit from an open conversation about the effects that porn can have on us as human beings.
The porn industry, which makes around $97 billion a year globally, is far from perfect. In addition to all the unknown psychological effects, there are countless aspects to consider such as child pornography, maltreatment of industry workers, human trafficking, objectification, dependency – the list goes on. But the least we can do is talk about it. If we don’t, the problem might get worse.
Where porn is headed right now
Kids today have almost uninterrupted access to computers, iPads, smartphones, and laptops where they can access the internet, the world’s hub for sexually explicit content. Increased use of pornography has been linked to more hookups, and therefore more unique hookup partners, which puts a person in riskier sexual situations.
“I think as a society, we are still very squeamish talking about sexual health, and we know that sexual health impacts people's physical and mental health,” Johnson says. Knowing is half the battle, but when it comes to porn, we are still hesitant to talk about the things we don’t know.