Waging War on Porn: Trial and Triumph at our Finger Tips

I remember when my family got our first computer.  It came in a big Gateway box with the black and white spotted cows, and I remember wondering how cows had anything to do with computers.  My eyes widened at the possibilities when my dad took out the big monitor.  We Millennials were the first generation to grow up exploring the Internet, using dial-up service that tied up phone lines and AOL CDs in the mail that promised 30, 50, and 100 free hours.  We were the first Googlers before Google existed, creators of awesome e-mail accounts that conveyed something about ourselves but had a unique, cool rhyme like my truebluesmooth@hotmail.com.  And let’s not forget those three letters that took up hours of our time: A-I-M.

But as Mufasa showed us how everything the light touches is ours, we asked, “What about that dark, shadowy place?”  And like any forceful parent the response is, “You must never go there!”  We were the Simbas and Nalas of the Internet world, and our curiosity about the unrated unknown overwhelmed us as that first half-dressed pop-up, that first seductive face beside the “CLICK ME” button, led us down a path that has proven difficult to escape for many in our generation.
——
Porn is pervasive in our society.  In 2009, the University of Montreal tried to launch a study researching college-aged men who had not viewed pornography, but returned saying they couldn’t find a single man who hadn’t.  Meanwhile the worldwide porn industry makes more than 90 billion dollars a year, which is more than Microsoft, Google, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo, Apple and Netflix make combined.

And this easy access to porn is bringing a new, unseen set of problems to our society:
-56% of divorces involve a spouse’s “obsessive interest in pornographic Web sites.”  Since around half of all marriages end in divorce, this means that one in four marriages end (at least in part) because of a partner’s addiction to pornography.

-More and more men in their 20’s are reporting erectile dysfunction disorder, many saying they can no longer get an erection around a real woman.

-One-third of pornography addicts lose their jobs, with 58% reporting major financial loss.
What is going on here?  Is virtual sex REALLY that good?

After doing a lot of research, talking to men (and women) across the country, going to workshops, and quite frankly gathering experience from my own trials and triumphs with my personal fight, here are my top three reasons why Internet pornography has been captivating our Millennial generation, along with some weapons of hope and positive ways to counter these factors:


click below to continue reading:
http://millennialjournal.com/2013/03/05/waging-war-on-porn-trial-and-triumph-at-our-finger-tips/