How Porn Impacts Us, Part 2: Addiction

In part 1 of this series I wrote a bunch of nebulous crap about control groups and pseudo-science, and wrote very little about actual porn. This despite the fact that I joked about three pornstars opening a “clinic” where they give away free sex, which would have been a great jumping-off point for a fantasy at the very least.

Now let’s talk about a topic that many people probably think about when they ponder the effects of porn on society: addiction. Is porn addictive? And if so, how does the addiction play out – what are the symptoms?

My History With Porn: High-Speed Internet

Throughout my college years, and for a few years into my working life, I connected to the internet through modems, eventually getting up to 28.8 kilobits per second – much faster than I’d been connecting, but still not very fast at all. As my career took off and money started coming in regularly I was able to trade up.