Thanks for the debate and topic.
1. Burden of Proof
The issue at hand is whether “Porn is Destructive”. As PRO in this debate, I’ll be proving how and why porn IS destructive, while CON will be proving how and why porn IS NOT destructive. Therefore, BOP is shared.
2. Definitions
Porn - Short for pornography, any video, picture, or writing that depicts erotic behavior to cause sexual excitement (arousal)
Destructive - Tending to hurt or destroy (ruin the condition of)
I’ll also define a few other terms which are used in my argument:
Masturbation - the stimulation or manipulation of one's own genitals, especially to orgasm; sexual self-gratification.
Orgasm - the physical and emotional sensation experienced at the peak of sexual excitation, usually resulting from stimulation of the sexual organ and usually accompanied in the male by ejaculation.
3. Arguments
For my first round, I’ll share two core arguments, demonstrating how porn as an addiction is destructive, and how the withdrawal is also destructive.
4. Addiction
Pornography serves its purpose primarily as a harmful addiction. In the NoFap community (a community served to guide away from the pornography addiction), porn is defined as the first part of a PMO (porn-masturbation-orgasm) cycle. This is a “series of events one goes through in order to “fap” to imaginary people seen on an electronic screen (or paper/magazine).”
[1]
The initiation of this cycle is due to dopamine being a major reason for people to watch more porn. Dopamine is traditionally used as a reward motivator for activities such as eating food and drinking to guide the body to survive [
2], but is also used as a reward motivator for sexual activity as a reproduction mechanism [
3].
However, there is a reason why we do not call eating food and drinking water an “addiction”, which is mostly due to the amount of dopamine being released. Porn releases 200 units of dopamine [
4]. This is comparable to alcohol (100-200 units) and cocaine (100-350 units), which are also all addictions purely due to the dopamine increase urging enjoyers to come back for more harmful activity [
5] [
6]. This game of dopamine is essentially what is destructive about porn: how a mechanism meant to encourage sexual reproduction is misused for watching porn as an addiction, destroying the purpose of dopamine releases in porn.
5. Withdrawal
Getting over this release of dopamine is the major challenge in porn addiction recovery [
7].
Although porn by itself is an addiction, the withdrawal of porn describes how it is truly destructive.
Of course, porn withdrawal ideally should get rid of the PMO cycle, but the symptoms of this withdrawal cause porn to be destructive. Excessive porn usage causes mood swings causing one to struggle to not watch porn, headaches as the brain must adjust to a no-porn lifestyle, irritability due to a source of desire being removed (porn), and depression due to the source of false pleasure being removed [
8].
On the medical side, porn recovery also causes high blood pressure and panic attacks due to the physical withdrawal [
9].
These symptoms essentially destroy a person’s character, physical state, mental state, and sexual urgency. This matches with the definition of “destructive”, as it hurts a person’s mental state due to the pleasure being removed.
6. Conclusion
Given how porn is an addiction which destroys the purpose of dopamine as a sexual reproduction mechanism, and how porn withdrawal itself is also destructive, I conclude that porn is destructive.
7. Sources
He forfeited the rounds ;-;
This is like people saying “drugs should be illegal because I was an addict” that’s just a projection of your issues in to everyone else who looks at porn. And like I said, I had an issue with it as well. It would be very irresponsible for me to project the problems I faced with this onto everyone else who uses porn. Porn has benefits and risks, to call it destructive because you used it in a destructive way is just bad thinking. It’s also playing the victim in a way because you’re blaming something besides yourself for mistakes and decisions you consciously made.
The word is, is too much for me to get behind. I have also had issues with porn use it almost destroyed a relationship with my girlfriend who I love more than everything. That is absolutely no one’s fault but mine. Porn CAN be destructive is something I could get behind.
I’m advocate for legalizing all drugs and a lot of the same things of drugs are valid for Porn. The vast majority of people who view porn do not form harmful viewership and that alone would mean saying porn IS destructive is wrong. Saying the word IS insinuates it is inherently destructive and will always lead viewers down a terrible path. That simply isn’t true.
You're arguing CON (why porn ISN'T destructive). I'm arguing PRO (why porn IS destructive).
You're arguing CON (why porn ISN'T destructive). I'm arguing PRO (why porn IS destructive).
"Porn Ruins Your Life !"
And yet you are Con!