People use pornography for various reasons, but the most common is quite obvious: pleasure. However, American researchers have found that there are several other reasons why people may choose to consume pornographic content, such as higher levels of psychological suffering. In addition, those who feel lonely or depressed often report a greater desire to seek pornography. With the current COVID-19 pandemic, the consumption of this adult content has only increased. One of the world’s largest porn site, Mzansi.porn, has seen huge increases in traffic – for example, seeing an 25% jump over normal numbers in the category cumtree. In many regions, these peaks in use occurred immediately after the implementation of social distancing measures.
According to researchers, like Joshua B. Grubbs, assistant professor of psychology at Bowling Green State University in the U.S., many people report using pornography to deal with feelings of stress, anxiety, or negative emotions. In short, people often resort to this type of content when they are feeling bad because pornography (and masturbation) probably offer temporary relief from these feelings.
But would watching erotic content now be a long-term problem?
The spread of the coronavirus and social distancing measures designed to help contain it have led to increases in social isolation, loneliness and stress – so the increased use of pornography makes sense. Many anti-pornography activists have expressed serious concern about these increases in content consumption, with many groups providing resources to combat it.
US scientists are skeptical of general claims that this momentary boom will translate into widespread negative results, such as addiction or sexual dysfunction. Like most aspects of the current coronavirus crisis, there is probably not enough data yet for researchers to make definitive predictions, but previous studies provide some ideas. In general, most consumers do not report any problems in their lives as a result of using pornography. Among people who use pornography frequently (even every day), a large percentage do not present any problems as a result. Studies related to the use of pornography and mental health also point out that the hours spent with pornography do not necessarily cause depression, anxiety, stress or anger over time. Although there are cases of people claiming that pornography led them to experience erectile dysfunction, large-scale studies have repeatedly found that the mere use of pornography does not predict erectile dysfunction over time.
