Were You Dinged Because You Look at Too Much Porn?

I think if you work for the SEC, it’s safe to say that the answer is no. In all seriousness though, a few days ago I stumbled upon an interesting TED video which discusses the physical changes that watching porn can cause to the brain. One of the points brought up is that behaviors related to watching too much porn can cause symptoms of, among other things, social anxiety.

The speaker in the video, Gary Wilson, states that there isn’t much research yet about the specific effects of porn on the brain, but in the video description is a link to his website, which has numerous firsthand accounts of people describing changes that occurred after they stopped watching porn all the time. Many of them describe social anxiety, lack of confidence, lack of energy and motivation, and so on, that gets better after they stop looking at porn.

These observations are all of course subjective, and obviously there’s not really a way to find out, but I’m also curious to know what kinds of people these are writing these observations. Are they mostly basement-dwelling neckbeards, or are they more ‘normal’ folks? And that’s what got me thinking about this in the context of interviews, work, etc.

Porn has become so ingrained in society that it’s almost unusual for one to not watch it at least occasionally. What if it really is causing changes to our brains that we aren’t even realizing? Changes that cause us to behave much more differently than we normally would. The video does indeed point out that this is an issue humanity hasn’t really faced before, with all the streaming and downloading and whatnot.

In my time I’ve had the distinct pleasure, as I’m sure many of you have as well, of interviewing some kids that looked quite polished on paper. In the interview you find they are indeed smart and can answer all the technical questions without a problem, but when it comes to “fit”, you find them to be just weird, and not in a good way.

What if them wanking it to porn had something to do with it? What if, without even realizing it, that’s they may be lacking the confidence they need to go out there and win some offers? What if, without even realizing it, porn is somehow causing those who look at it to lack the confidence and energy to go out there and be awesome?