LADbible’s For F*ck Sake report has yielded some interesting results on how we engage with porn
… LADbible surveyed over 5,300 18-28 year olds to understand how we all engage with porn, how it makes us feel and how it’s affecting our lives. And we’ve made some seriously eye-opening discoveries.
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Porn can get in the way
It’s that reasonable confidence that seems to be lacking, though, because while our stats show a third of porn users say it positively affects sex lives, the same proportion said porn was getting in the way of sex.
And what’s really interesting – considering so much previous research has shown how badly porn depicts and treats women – is that men are more likely to feel negatively towards porn.
When we asked why people are driven to watch it, they scored higher for negative drivers like boredom, temptation, habit and low self-esteem.
As for after watching porn, women were more likely to report feeling positive, citing feelings like satisfaction, energisation and excitement. While men were more likely to pick out negative feelings like guilt, shame and numbness.
Porn has an impact away from our screens, and when it comes down to interest in sex and performance in bed, men were way more likely to say that porn had impacted them negatively:
34% of respondents said they had suffered increased sexual dysfunction (difficulty maintaining an erection, delayed ejaculation or inability to reach orgasm) after watching porn:
- 37% of men
- 28% of women
- 54% of daily viewers
32% said that interest in real-life sex has decreased since consuming porn:
- 37% of men
- 25% of women
- 49%of daily viewers
And men were again more likely to have concerns around their porn intake. 54% of men worry they watch too much porn (33% of women do), and 49% of men worry they struggle to quit porn or reduced intake (33% of women).
Men were also more likely to find that porn had impacted their mental health and sense of well-being: 52% of men said it had impacted their self-esteem (compared to 41% of women), while 45% of men said it contributed to symptoms of anxiety or depression ( 32% of women).
What’s causing men to feel so much worse about porn?
We do know that men are more likely to be daily viewers (24% to 11%) and more likely to have started watching porn at a young age (71% to 50%).
Dr Hall, who says 90% of her service users are male, explains that men watch porn more than women and they ‘feel more shame around the amount of time they’re spending on it or watching types of porn they’re not happy with’.
“If this porn is misogynistic and violent, and most of them watching are nice guys, they’re likely to feel more shame about it.”
When asked questions that didn’t even bring up dependency, some men said porn had really messed with them, saying things like: “It is only with being distanced from porn is when you realise it’s damaged your brain,” and: “It’s made my life hell and it seems disgusting.”
One even warned: “Trying to imitate sex scenes with your partner in real life ruins relationships. I speak from experience.”
Addiction is also a real concern amongst some men.
“It’s not the porn per se that they have a problem with,” says Dr Hall: “It’s the fact that they know they’re quite dependent. Watching porn can be an effective way of managing difficult emotions, but as you increase in dependency, it creates them.
“Let’s say you felt depressed because you’re away at university and you’re away from your family. So you lock yourself in on your own, leave the party early, turn up to a seminar late, so you can watch loads of porn.
“That increases your sense of isolation and depression, and then you need to escape from it even more. The problem is with the cycle that people get trapped in.”
For Dunne, it’s that porn promises a release it doesn’t always deliver on: “There isn’t much joy in the world for young men. The only activities really that they can do for cheap are the gym, which brings up a whole load of other issues around ripped bodies, gaming, or watching porn.”
“A lot of boys I speak to say they want something in their spare time that gives them pleasure, but they realise afterwards that they feel a little bit empty,” he added.
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