When high speed internet became widely available a few years ago, growing numbers of people began to worry that their porn use was running out of control. Far from preparing them for fulfilling relationships, viewing an endless stream of porn videos led to unexpected symptoms. Perhaps most surprisingly, for the first time in history erectile dysfunction was becoming a significant problem for young men. This led to one of the largest informal experiments in the history of science. Tens of thousands of people have tried abstaining from sexually stimulating material in a process they call 'rebooting'. Many of them reported startling changes, from improved concentration and elevated mood to a greater capacity for real-life intimacy. Gary Wilson has listened to the stories of those who have tried giving up internet porn and related them to an account of how the reward system of the brain interacts with its environment. And now a growing body of research in neuroscience is confirming what these pioneers have discovered for themselves - internet pornography can be seriously addictive and damaging. In Your Brain on Porn Wilson provides a concise introduction to the phenomenon of internet porn addiction that draws on both first-person accounts and the findings of cognitive neuroscience. In a voice that is generous and humane, he also offers advice for those who want to stop using internet pornography. The publication of Your Brain on Porn is a landmark in our attempts to understand, and remain balanced in, a world where addiction is big business.
My interest in this book is mainly from a historical perspective: never before have humans had access to continuous streams of sexually stimulating content. Such a development is bound to change the way people express and experience their sexuality.
Your Brain on Porn offered plenty of fascinating information on what viewing copious amounts of internet porn does to the brain. Spoiler alert: it's not good. What I found especially refreshing is that the book takes no moral stance on whether pornography is wrong or not. It simply questions, what happens if we watch (too much of) it?
It presents a convincing argument, compiling all relevant research conducted until now, but ultimately I was not the intended audience. It largely reads as a self-help book for men dealing with sexual issues stemming from porn use. I'm sure this book is helpful to them, as it contains many testimonials and an uplifting message, but this aspect of the book held little interest for me.
