Pornography Induced Erectile Dysfunction Among Young Men

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Dignity: A Journal on Sexual
Exploitation and Violence
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Pornography Induced Erectile Dysfunction Among
Young Men
Hamdija Begovic
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Pornography Induced Erectile Dysfunction Among Young Men
Abstract
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Volume 4, Issue 1, Article 5, 2019 https://doi.org/10.23860/dignity.2019.04.01.05
PORNOGRAPHY INDUCED
ERECTILE DYSFUNCTION AMONG YOUNG MEN
Hamdija Begovic
Örebro University, Sweden
ABSTRACT
This paper explores the phenomenon of pornography induced erectile dysfunction
(PIED), meaning sexual potency problems in men due to Internet pornography
consumption. Empirical data from men who suffer from this condition have been collected.
A combination of topical life history method (with qualitative asynchronous online
narrative interviews) and personal online diaries has been employed. The data have been
analyzed using theoretical interpretative analysis (according to McLuhan’s media theory),
based on analytic induction. The empirical investigation indicates that there is a correlation
between pornography consumption and erectile dysfunction that suggests causation. The
findings are based on 11 interviews along with two video diaries and three text diaries. The
men are between the ages of 16 and 52; they report that an early introduction to
pornography (usually during adolescence) is followed by daily consumption until a point is
reached where extreme content (involving, for example, elements of violence) is needed to
maintain arousal. A critical stage is reached when sexual arousal is exclusively associated
with extreme and fast-paced pornography, rendering physical intercourse bland and
uninteresting. This results in an inability to maintain an erection with a real-life partner,
at which point the men embark on a “re-boot” process, giving up pornography. This has
helped some of the men to regain their ability to achieve and sustain an erection.
KEYWORDS
pornography addiction; social fragmentation; cultural critique; social isolation, Internet
ornography induced erectile dysfunction (PIED) is a condition that has gar-
nered some attention in the media (Dagens Nyheter, 2017; Abel, 2013), pop-
ular literature (Jack & Wilson, 2014) along with being the focus of scientific
studies (presented in the literature review below). It might be defined as a depend-
ence on pornography causing an inability to achieve and maintain an erection re-
quired for partnered sex (such as intercourse, oral sex, and manual stimulation).
In other words, what starts as an alternative to sexual intimacy with a person ends
up outcompeting the real thing. To illustrate one aspect of the problem: One be-
comes unable to feel arousal upon seeing an attractive person in a sexual pose,
P
1
Begovic: Pornography Induced Erectile Dysfunction Among Young Men
Published by DigitalCommons@URI, 2019

unless and until one records and gets to watch the same person, in the same pose,
through a screen.
1
The purpose of this study is to treat this problem as a social phenomenon by
conducting an empirical study. Ten male respondents have been interviewed, ex-
plaining their Internet pornography viewing habits along with their sexual potency
problems. Along with this, I have made use of one pre-recorded video interview;
and a set of five diaries (three text and two video diaries). This empirical material
is then analyzed using social theory, to assess which, if any, aspects of the theory
may be deemed relevant and where it may offer insights into the matter, as well as
where it falls short.
The study begins with an empirical investigation into men suffering from
PIED. This consists of qualitative interviews with 10 respondents, along with one
video interview publicly available and accessed through the Internet, as well as
three text and two video diaries. In all, the experiences of 16 men suffering from
PIED are utilized. This is followed by an analysis of this empirical material using
Marshall McLuhan’s theory about the social effects of media.
Background
The concept of pornography addiction remains controversial in some quarters.
However, the World Health Organization’s (2018) International Statistical Clas-
sification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-11) uses the term “com-
pulsive sexual behavior disorder” to diagnose, among other behaviors, what other-
wise could be termed pornography addiction.
2
This interpretation is supported by
a recent study (Gola & Potenza, 2018). “Cybersexual addiction” and “cyberrela-
tional addiction (where online relationships become more important than real life
ones)” (Ross, Mansson & Daneback 2011, p. 459) are other suggested terms and
descriptions of the phenomenon in question (or aspects of it).
In a strictly sociological context, where a clinical diagnosis is not as crucial, the
most relevant term would perhaps be self-perceived pornography addiction
(SPPA). The self-identified nature of the problem is stressed by some social scien-
tists (Grubbs, Exline, Pargament, Hook, & Carlisle, 2014), but even without a de-
finitive diagnosis, the fact that the problem manifests itself as an addiction has
been accentuated (De Alarcón, de la Iglesia, Casado, & Montejo, 2019 and Sirianni
& Vishwanath, 2015). With time, a more standardized and synchronized definition
might emerge, but the current state of research in the field is characterised by a
certain lack of uniformity in that regard.
A recent systematic review of studies on SPPA concludes that different theo-
retical perspectives underlie current research on the matter, and that there are di-
verse definitions available (Duffy, Dawson, & das Nair, 2016). The same conclusion
has been reached in another literature review (Wéry & Billieux, 2017). As for the
nature of the problem itself, one study has identified a certain addiction process,
1
On the other hand, for a man who has conditioned his arousal to certain fetishes, or the need to
continuously click from one video to another, such a measure will prove ineffective. This issue will be
explored in the study.
2
It should be noted that neither the ICD-11 nor the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic
and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (2013) uses the word “addiction” to describe addictions
in general (this includes heroin, gambling and nicotine addictions).
2
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DOI: 10.23860/dignity.2019.04.01.05

along the following trajectory: “Discovery → Experimentation → Escalation →
Compulsion → Hopelessness” (Young, 2008, p. 29).
Since the focus of the present study is not on mere pornography addiction, but
specifically its adverse consequences in the form of sexual dysfunction, I shall now
be highlighting the research on that particular aspect of the problem. A major 2016
literature review, which examines data from clinical, biological, psychological as
well as sociological studies, shows that “evidence has mounted that Internet por-
nography may be a factor in the rapid surge in rates of sexual dysfunction” (Park,
Wilson, Berger, Christman, Reina, Bishop, Klam & Doan, 2016, p. 3). Significantly,
the sharp rise in sexual dysfunction is demonstrable amongst men under 40. Sev-
eral studies cited have correlated pornography consumption with sexual problems
including erectile dysfunction; this particularly applies to consumption of extreme
pornography. For example, in one study, men with a higher interest in extreme
pornography were more likely to be concerned about sustaining an erection than
other Internet pornography consumers. (Park et al., p. 13) In one study, 49% of
respondents reported consuming pornography previously deemed uninteresting
or even disgusting (Wéry & Billieux, 2016). Lower erectile function was also
associated with “online sexual activity” in this study. A “habituation effect” has
been reported in another recent study as well, with the researchers concluding that
the novelty afforded by Internet pornography has the potential to continually feed
the addiction (Banca, Morris, Mitchell, Harrison, Potenza, Voon, 2016). Signifi-
cantly, clinical reports featured in the review indicate that eliminating pornogra-
phy might reverse the condition. This has been shown in a French study as well,
where men who eliminated pornography managed to regain their sexual potency
(Porto, 2016).
Yet another literature review highlights studies where men who frequently con-
sume pornography report sexual dysfunctions, mainly difficulties achieving or-
gasm with a partner. In a study on men with hypersexuality disorders, 71% of men
who chronically masturbated to pornography reported sexual functioning prob-
lems (Mollaioli, Sansone, Romanelli, & Jannini, 2018). Delayed ejaculation was
reported by 33% (Sutton, Stratton, Pytyck, Kolla, & Cantor, 2014). Another study
has found that with frequent pornography consumption “an individual may be-
come conditioned to pornographic as opposed to other sources of sexual arousal”
(Wright, Sun, Steffen, & Tokunaga 2017, p. 12). The study has found that pornog-
raphy consumption may lead to reduced partnered sexual excitement. A meta-
analysis by some of the same researchers has demonstrated less sexual and rela-
tionship satisfaction associated with greater pornography consumption (Wright,
Tokunaga, Kraus, & Klann, 2017).
Studies also show that some Internet pornography users report that they reach
a point where they begin to prefer it over partnered sex (Young, 2008 and Free-
man-Longo, 2000). In an Italian study, 16% of adolescent boys (out of 1163 re-
spondents) who consume pornography more than once a week report abnormally
low sexual desire compared with 0% in non-consumers. The number is 6% for
those whose consumption extends to less than once a week (Pizzol, Bertoldo, &
Foresta, 2015). Male participants in an Australian study have reported that com-
pulsive pornography consumption has had adverse effects on sexual function and
arousal (Davis, Carrotte, Hellard, Temple-Smith, & Lim, 2017). Another study has
found that pornography consumption may lead to reduced partnered sexual ex-
citement (Wright, Sun, Steffen & Tokunaga, 2017). The results of that study sug-
gest that pornography consumers become conditioned to pornography as a source
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Begovic: Pornography Induced Erectile Dysfunction Among Young Men
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of sexual arousal, which has also been confirmed in other studies. For example,
one study reaches the following conclusion:
[C]lassical conditioning is also involved in the continuation of problematic
sexual activities online. Through repeated pairing of online use for sexual
purposes with physical arousal, the latter becomes conditioned so that it
is elicited by engaging with the technology, the conditioned stimulus, it-
self. Thus, the mere sight of a computer screen, the sound of the router
connecting to the Internet, and/or the tactile sensations when typing on a
keyboard may serve as sources of arousal” (Griffiths, 2011, p. 114).
Furthermore, in an experiment where video pornography was employed, par-
ticipants who had been subjected to a high exposure to erotica experienced lower
responsivity to pornography of the regular variety (Janssen, 2007). This, again,
suggests that consumers build up a tolerance with time and increased use, which
in turn may lead to an escalation in terms of the content, where increasingly ex-
treme forms of pornography are needed to achieve arousal. A hedonic adaptation
3
approach may be employed to explain this phenomenon (D’Orlando, 2011).
The aim of the present study is to further the research on this topic by exploring
PIED as lived and described by men who perceive to suffer from the condition. In
doing so, I wish to highlight the process by which PIED ensues. One study de-
scribed the process whereby addiction arises out of pornography consumption
(Young, 2008); similarly, I wish to describe the process whereby PIED ensues out
of the addiction.
Method
This study is based on a topical life history method and data triangulation. The
former means that only a certain aspect of the subject’s life is investigated (in this
case, PIED) and the latter that both interviews and personal diaries (in the form of
texts and videos, acquired from the Internet) are combined. The interviews and
text diaries are anonymous; the video content is publicly available. The interviews
are asynchronous and narrative, meaning that the questions have been submitted
first, and the answers are provided at a later point, and the focus of the interviews
is the story that the respondent divulges, specifically the description and the struc-
ture of the personal experience as it relates to PIED. The text and video diaries
published on the Internet serve as a confessional journal, which offers insight into
the private life of an individual.
In order to accomplish the set task of interpreting the data based on a social
theory (McLuhan’s), I will be using what is called analytic induction, which in-
volves studying a social phenomenon, formulating a hypothetical explanation of
that phenomenon, and determining how well the hypothesis serves to explain it
(Denzin, 2009, p. 195). In this study, the above procedure is performed by
3
Hedonic adaption has been defined as “a reduction in the affective intensity of favorable and unfa-
vorable circumstances.” (Frederick & Loewenstein, 1999, p. 302). It simply means that one tends to
get used to one’s circumstances, be they good or bad, and continuously fall back to a stable emotional
state. In the context of pornography, it would mean that a certain variety of pornography will provide
the viewer with a certain amount of pleasure for a limited amount of time before it turns unsatisfying,
making the consumer move on to a new variety of pornography.
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DOI: 10.23860/dignity.2019.04.01.05

presenting the results of my empirical investigation and determining whether
McLuhan’s theory serves to explain it.
Marshall McLuhan is famous for stressing that one does not necessarily need
to analyze the actual content of the material produced by a medium in order to
appreciate its effect on a person and its potential for social impact. In fact, to focus
on the content instead of the effect distracts from the real significance of the me-
dium. One should “turn from the content of messages to study total effect” (McLu-
han, 1964, p. 28), a technological innovation that revolutionizes the way one un-
derstands reality and interacts with the world serves, as it were, as an extension of
oneself. This applies in particular to electronic media since they have a bearing on
the way our nervous system works. Using McLuhan’s theory, the “message” of In-
ternet pornography is the extension or acceleration it creates in the life of a person
watching the action on the screen. McLuhan writes of a “technological simulation
of consciousness” that extends “our central nervous system itself” (McLuhan, 1964,
p. 3) and “affects the whole psychic and social complex” (McLuhan, 1964, p. 4). He
envisages a different world and an entirely novel system that constitutes “a global
embrace, abolishing both space and time” (McLuhan, 1964, p. 4). He writes of the
modern medium creating “the man of action who appears not to be involved in the
action,” or what in this context might be paraphrased: “the man of sex who appears
not to be involved in sex” (McLuhan, 1964, p. 5).
McLuhan also mentions that modern media serve as extensions of man, and he
claims that “each extension brings about in the individual and society” something
that he refers to as “numbness” (McLuhan, 1964, p. 6). He explains this by claiming
that the modern medium “shapes and controls the scale and form of human asso-
ciation and action” (McLuhan, 1964, p. 9) and that this process might lead down
the path of “amputation” (McLuhan, 1964, p. 12). The modern media hypnotizes
the modern man to the point of the aforementioned state of amputation (McLuhan,
1964, p. 12). McLuhan also refers to something that he calls “the subliminal state
of Narcissus trance.” This happens when the involved media consumer falls under
the hypnotic spell of the relevant medium that, as it were, “has the power of im-
posing its own assumption on the unwary” (McLuhan, 1964, p. 16). I shall be re-
turning to McLuhan in the discussion section.
Since this study deals with male sexual potency problems, only males have
been targeted. There are two criteria to qualify as a respondent for this study. These
are: one has experienced an inability or severe difficulty in gaining and/or sustain-
ing an erection with a partner; and one believes that this problem is caused by
PIED. In order to establish contact with potential respondents, I put an announce-
ment on an online forum called NoFap Forums (2017) and ended up with 10 re-
spondents. In terms of the diaries, for the text variety, I again used the NoFap Fo-
rums and selected the diaries by utilizing the forum search engine, typing in
“PIED” in the “Reboot logs” section where the members tell their stories and report
their progress in trying to eliminate pornography from their lives. I ended up with
three users who mention their struggles with PIED in multiple posts (at least five
posts). As for the video diaries, here I utilized the video upload website YouTube.
The combined search “PIED” and “NoFap” resulted in about 1,090 videos. Out of
these, I found five relevant videos, four of which belong to one person. Apart from
the above material, I have also used an unedited 31-minute publically available
video interview uploaded to YouTube, conducted with an anti-pornography activ-
ist.
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Begovic: Pornography Induced Erectile Dysfunction Among Young Men
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Ethical issues in regards to this particular study are primarily related to main-
taining the anonymity of the respondents. This does not apply to the video and text
diaries that have been made public on the Internet by the creators of these diaries;
in the case of those sources, I have made sure to reference them properly. In the
American Sociological Association’s Code of Ethics (2008), it is stated that “[s]oci-
ologists may [...] use publicly-available information about individuals (e.g., natu-
ralistic observations in public places, analysis of public records, or archival re-
search) without obtaining consent” (Paragraph 12.01). This is balanced off with the
following point, taken from paragraph 14: “In their publications [...] sociologists
provide acknowledgment of and reference to the use of others’ work, even if the
work is not quoted verbatim or paraphrased[.]” The result, then, is that the sources
for the diaries are disclosed and referenced, whereas the respondents’ identities
remain undisclosed. I have followed all of the points under paragraphs 11 and 12 of
the Code of Ethics, regarding confidentiality and informed consent.
There was an additional measure taken at the behest of the administrators of
the NoFap forums. They requested that I conduct the interviews exclusively via the
personal messages feature available at the forum website, to avoid obtaining the e-
mail addresses of the respondents (as this could enable me to learn more about
their Internet presence and therefore, possibly, their real identities). These admin-
istrators did not allow me to advertise for respondents on their forums without
first agreeing to this and other conditions, which include providing detailed infor-
mation about myself as a researcher, the objectives and methods of this study, and
Örebro University. I agreed to these conditions.
Results
Having processed the data, I have noticed certain patterns and recurring
themes, following a chronological narrative in all of the interviews. These are: In-
troduction. One is first introduced to pornography, usually before puberty.
Building a habit. One begins to consume pornography regularly. Escalation.
One turns to more “extreme” forms of pornography, content-wise, in order to
achieve the same effects previously achieved through less “extreme” forms of por-
nography. Realization. One notices sexual potency problems believed to be
caused by pornography use. “Re-boot” process. One tries to regulate pornogra-
phy use or eliminate it completely in order to regain one’s sexual potency. The data
from the interviews are presented based on the above outline.
This outline is not equally applicable to the diaries since they usually start from
the re-boot process and provide limited background information about the history
up to that point. In order to complete the picture, additional research would be
needed. For example, one might try to contact the diarists and conduct an inter-
view in order to collect additional information. This being said, some diaries are
more detailed than others, and in some of them, the narrative runs along the same
five-point trajectory. Other diaries provide less information, the focus being on the
re-boot process, documenting the progress and counting the days. In the case of
these less detailed diaries, only the realization and re-boot stages will be presented.
The Respondents and Diarists
The video interviewee is Gabe Deem (2015), a public figure who became an
anti-pornography activist after experiencing erectile dysfunction and concluding
that excessive pornography consumption was the cause. The interview was
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conducted by a journalist for a news report. It is unedited and uploaded to
YouTube by Gabe Deem himself.
For the video diaries, I have used two diaries uploaded to YouTube. The first is
by someone with the username AjaxUnchained (2016) who wants to give up por-
nography and records his progress through video diaries, sharing his experiences
and thoughts. Since his YouTube channel does not deal exclusively with PIED – he
discusses pornography in general without focusing specifically on erectile dysfunc-
tion – I have singled out four videos (because they reference PIED) amongst
around one hundred (the rest of which do not). In two of these, he brings up and
discusses his sexual potency problems specifically, which he believes to have been
caused by excessive pornography consumption (AjaxUnchained, 2016a, and
AjaxUnchained, 2016b). In addition to these two videos, I have also picked out the
first pornography related one on AjaxUnchained’s channel, where he explains how
he decided to stop watching pornography, and also another one, where he dis-
cusses the escalation process (AjaxUnchained, 2016c, and AjaxUnchained, 2016d).
Another public online video diary that I have used comes from user Hayden Rose
(2016). He has uploaded one video where he discusses the issue, doing so rather
concisely. So, in this case, AjaxUnchained is an example of a diarist who provides
more details, and Hayden Rose is someone who provides less. I believe that the
scarcity of the number of videos and the information contained within them has to
do with the sensitive nature of the topic at hand, combined with the public form of
medium. This is in line with what has been discussed about data triangulation in
the method section: there are differences in the anonymous and public narrative
in terms of the sheer quantity of information. This means that for this study, video
diaries provide less data than do, in particular, anonymous interviews. Hayden
Rose’s testimony is therefore only relevant when it comes to a realization and the
re-boot process.
The text diaries have been retrieved from the same forum – the NoFap forum
– through which I conducted my interviews. I selected the diaries by searching for
“PIED” in the “Reboot logs” section, where the members tell their stories and re-
port their progress. I picked out the ones with the most posts, in order to gain the
most information, ending up with three diaries. The results are presented based on
two themes: realization and the re-boot process. The first diary is titled Journal of
wally_s (wally_s, 2015). The second one is titled back on the mountain (Apple-
head, 2015), a man who is in his thirties. The last one is by another 52 years old; it
is titled Kidding myself for a coupla decades (Mooses67, 2016).
Finally, I conducted online interviews. Table 1 lists the respondents’ age, occu-
pation, age of first exposure to pornography and their pornography use habits.
Early Use of Pornography
The respondents and diarists have generally had an early introduction to por-
nography. In some cases, they first learned about it before puberty.
Gabe Deem mentions that he was introduced to pornography and masturba-
tion at the age of eight, and then staying up late at the age of ten watching pornog-
raphy on cable television. He was introduced to the Internet variety of pornogra-
phy, specifically, at twelve.
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As for AjaxUnchained, in the first video dealing with pornography, recorded
thirty days into his “NoFap” experiment, he mentions that he started masturbating
before puberty without providing additional detail.
The first text diarist, wally_s, is 52 years old, which is a bit of an anomaly in
this study since the respondents and the other diarists have generally been up to
the age of around 30. wally_s mentions starting off watching pornography as an
early teenager: “Since I was an early- to mid-teenager I now realize that I have
engaged in chronic masturbation. So, most of forty years?” (wally_s, 2015).
Mooses67, another text diarist, mentions starting to watch pornography as a
teenager (since he was about sixteen). Interestingly enough, he is the same age as
wally_s, that is, 52 years old. He is married.
Table 1 – Respondents Age, Occupation, First Exposure to Pornography, and
Pornography Use Habits
Alias
Age
Occupation
First Exposure to
Pornography (Age)
Pornography Use
Habits (At Their Most
Intensive)
Pierre
24
Barman
10
3-5 times/day
André
16
Student
11
2-3 times/day
Dante
25
Marketing
Manager
14
Most part of the day
Horace
22
Working in
Internet
Technology
13
5 times/day
Milton
23
Pizzeria Owner
Around 14-15
6-7 hours/day
Lambert
20
Working in Retail
14
30-90 min/day
Frederick
29
Self-Employed
Around 12-13
7-8 times/day
Cole
21
Sailor
Around 7
5-6 times/day
Patric
31
Musician
Around 8-9
3 hours/day
Owen
29
Works in Pest
Control
9
5 times/day
When it comes to the online interview respondents, as is evident from Table 1,
five or possibly six of the ten respondents were first introduced to pornography
before their teenage years. The youngest got introduced to it around the age of
seven; the oldest around the age of 15. The pattern, then, is that exposure to por-
nography tends to start at an early age.
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Building a Habit
Gabe Deem continued to watch pornography throughout high school and col-
lege. The use was excessive to the point of watching in school, during class. He
would watch it almost every day.
For AjaxUnchained, after his initial introduction before puberty, he got into the
habit of watching pornography and masturbating “every single day.” He would go
so far as to masturbate “while driving” (AjaxUnchained, 2016c).
All of the 10 online interview respondents mention that when their pornogra-
phy viewing habits reached their peak, they would watch every day. Lambert’s hab-
its were the mildest, with 30 to 90 minutes a day; Dante’s habits were the most
rigorous, taking up most of the day (he mentions being self-employed at the period,
thus managing his own time). See Table 2 for the respondents’ age at the first in-
stance of PIED, whether they report an escalation of content (i.e. whether they
found the need to turn to more extreme content with time) and, finally, whether
they can report a recovery from PIED.
Escalation
Gabe Deem mentions that he started with “soft-core” pornography, and ended
up with more extreme content. By extreme, he means such material that used to
disgust him and that he would describe as “shocking.” He states: “I need[ed] more
excitement, to feel the same level of arousal.” He would watch compilations, i.e.,
collections of sex scenes in sequence. This suggests that one sex scene was not
enough for him to maintain the same level of arousal (Gabe Deem, 2015).
For AjaxUnchained, the escalation process turned out to be traumatic and per-
sonally devastating. He explains how he felt the need to watch increasingly “ex-
treme” porn in order to experience arousal. Starting off watching regular hetero-
sexual intercourse, he mentions that after a certain period this would not satisfy
him anymore. He would then search for new varieties of pornography until he
ended up watching “rape porn,” porn involving feces and urine, “peeping Tom”
videos, and what for him turned out to be most shocking: trans-sexual pornogra-
phy, even though he identifies as a heterosexual. This had a traumatic effect, and
he would keep it a secret, until finally revealing this on his YouTube channel.
You want to view something more shocking, something to where you feel
that adrenaline rush, that heart pounding, more dopamine hit, and that’s
where it lead me. Because, you know, I started watching porn at the age of
eleven, just watching regular porn. […] Soft core porn, then it lead up to
hard core porn. Then eventually it lead me into looking at shemales at
maybe around, I want to say, fourteen or fifteen (AjaxUnchained, 2016d).
He reiterates that he does not identify as homosexual, and he kept these view-
ing habits a secret due to feelings of shame. He mentions that he became worried
that he would not be able to be attracted to non-transsexual women. He eventually
concluded that these pornography viewing habits were not related to sexual orien-
tation per se.
Just know that you need something shocking, something, uhm, something
new, something, like, hardcore to trigger that … trigger more dopamine.
‘Cause that’s what we’re addicted to. We’re addicted to that dopamine
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rush. We’re addicted to that dopamine hit. And every time I watched some-
thing shocking and new I would feel like, like I just like stuck myself up
with, like, more heroine and I would get, like, a bigger rush. You know, so,
that’s the thing that we’re addicted to. It’s not that we’re addicted to she-
male porn. We’re addicted to something shocking, something new, you
know, something that’s, like, out of the norm (AjaxUnchained, 2016d).
Mooses67 mentions the following:
I'm 52 and have been using porn since I was about 16--sort of a late
bloomer from what I gather. Over the years, it's escslated [sic] to the point
where now I M[asturbate] at least once a day, wasting a LOT of hours along
the way. I am happily married--my wife knows vaguely that I use porn--
used porn?--but I keep the extent--and variety--a secret. I definitely am
ashamed (Mooses67, 2016).
Turning now to the online interview respondents, since McLuhan distinguishes
between hot and cold – that is, high and low definition – media, I tried to deter-
mine whether video quality was a factor in PIED for them. Therefore, I included
questions about escalation in video quality, meaning whether the respondents no-
ticed that a switch from low to high definition video quality affected them in terms
of sexual potency. Unfortunately, it was difficult for them to determine whether
there ever was such a shift from lower to higher quality of videos because they did
not keep track of such developments over time, nor did they keep track of which
videos were of good and which were of bad video quality, or how much of the
pornography was viewed on a computer screen and how much on the smart phone
(they used both).
The hypothesis that high definition pornography is conducive to PIED is there-
fore difficult to test without resorting to experiments using control groups. One
could argue that since the respondents have not taken notice of any difference in
how low quality or high-quality videos affected their PIED, this perhaps indicates
that the distinction is not important. After all, if it were important and did have an
impact, they would perhaps have taken notice of it. However, this is not necessarily
the case; since the respondents were generally unaware of the risk of PIED, there
would be no reason for them to keep tabs on the video quality of what they watched
to establish whether an upgrade in quality did have an adverse effect on them,
because they had not considered the possibility that consuming Internet
pornography might have an adverse effect in the first place. Also, if the video clips
being watched throughout the day vary in terms of quality – some high-definition
and some low-definition – there is a practical problem in that it becomes difficult
to pinpoint when a possible shift in quality takes place, and it would appear
pointless to record these shifts in quality unless one purposefully sets out to
conduct a study, which they did not. It could be that at a certain point in time the
amount of high-quality video clips increased by a certain percentage, but since
these clips were garbled together with clips of lower quality, such a shift would
remain unnoticed.
Even when a switch from low to high definition can be determined, it is difficult
to pin it down as a factor. Owen explains his own case:
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Yes, I did start out with VHS tapes and pay per view television. I can't really
say if jumping low-res to hi-res had an impact on me in this way. My view-
ing was not as great in amount on low-res and I was very young. When I
switched to internet porn at age 12, my viewing amount went much higher.
Yes, I did start with just a clip or two in the beginning and eventually grad-
uated into multiple clips during a session. By age 16 PIED started. I
couldn't get fully erect without touching myself and forcing it to happen. I
also had to seek out more extreme clips in combination with self
stimulation (Owen, online interview, March 8, 2017).
Due to this, I will not be able to apply this particular empirical data to that
aspect of McLuhan’s theory, meaning his distinction between low and high defini-
tion media.
However, when it comes to escalation from “regular” forms of pornography to
“extreme” or “shocking” forms, in terms of the content itself, the pattern is clear.
All of the respondents mention such a transition. For example, five of the respond-
ents, who identify as heterosexual, mention that they went from pornography with
heterosexual themes to pornography featuring trans-women (what they term “she-
male porn”), and three of the respondents mention that they would gradually turn
to pornography featuring violence. Andre states:
I began to watch more hardcore material – fighting, BDSM, that sort of
genre. At this point I also began to watch it more and more. I slowly
climbed through this area of porn until just before my decision to quit it
was hardly sex, just beating and abuse – as if the female was just a sex
object. I knew it was wrong but nothing 'normal' excited me any more. […]
I was having trouble to get fully erect even with hardcore porn. With 'nor-
mal' porn I could not maintain an erection at all. With a real partner it was
even worse (Andre, online interview, February 18, 2017).
Escalation of this type suggests that hedonic adaption might be a factor at play.
However, since PIED suggests a dependence, i.e. the person needs pornography to
function sexually, there appears to be more to the story than mere hedonic adap-
tation. Dante states:
I went from regular porn, to drunk, to more extreme porn even had a shift
into shemale porn. I needed more and more extreme porn to get off. this
was between 22-25 […] There has been very random times where I can get
an erection. Through crazy fantasizing and role playing (Dante, online in-
terview, February 18, 2017).
Frederick states:
I shifted towards more extreme. From man-girl to more men-girl, more
girls, compilation of intense short clips, rough, piss, humiliation, role plays
etc. But I never got to scat, homosexual type. The progress was gradual and
sometimes it took few steps back. For example when I spent three weeks
on a summer camp without access to porn (I did not even think about it
because so many fun things going on), after that it was just enough to
watch something milder (Frederick, online interview, March 1, 2017).
Horace:
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I remember when I found the first videos online when I was about 14 only
watching normal PIV
4
for about 2 weeks until I switched to anal. After an-
other year it gradually became more brutal with forced deepthroat and hu-
miliating and slaps. and after I discovered hentei I also watched/read a lot
of futanari/shemale-porn at about 18 (Horace, online interview, February
21, 2017).
This suggests that completely ignoring the content, as suggested by McLuhan’s
suggestion to merely focus on the effects of media, would appear misguided in this
case, since content escalation is such an integral aspect of PIED.
Table 2 – Respondents Age of First Instance of Pornography Induced Erectile
Dysfunction, Escalation of Content, and Report on Recovery
Alias
Escalation of
Content
Age at First Instance of
Pornography Induced Erectile
Dysfunction?
Re-boot
(Recovery)
Success?5
Pierre
Yes
Around 21
N/A
André
Yes
Around 14-15
N/A
Dante
Yes
Around 23
N/A
Horace
Yes
17
No
Milton
Yes
22
N/A
Lambert
Yes
18
No
Frederick
Yes
19
Yes
Cole
Yes
Around 19-21
N/A
Patric
Yes
26
N/A
Owen
Yes
23
Yes
Realization
Gabe Deem mentions that he was unaware of any notion that pornography
could have a negative physiological impact. He still does not have any moral objec-
tions to pornography. He states health reasons as the motive behind his current
negative attitude toward it. He would experience decreased drive to have real sex
and an increased drive for porn.
I didn’t realise it was a problem until I had porn induced erectile dysfunc-
tion at the age of twenty three, when I realized I could no longer be aroused
4
PIV stands for “Penis In Vagina”
5
N/A in re-boot success means that the person has not yet had an opportunity to determine whether
or not he has recovered from PIED.
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with a real partner and I became dependent on porn to feel anything.
(Gabe Deem, 2015)
After experiencing erectile dysfunction, he searched around the Internet and
found others with similar problems. There were similar stories and similar details
from people who mentioned PIED. This made him suspect that this might be the
problem. To him, the diagnosis made sense:
You practice over and over and over again – you train your brain to re-
spond to a certain stimulus. Like Pavlov’s dog that salivated when he heard
the bell, we condition ourselves: when we become sexually aroused or have
a sexual thought, we crave a screen, we crave novelty, we crave a shock,
something new, something we can keep clicking on. But when we’re with
a real partner, you see her once, there’s no novelty, there’s nothing new,
and your body hasn’t been trained for skin-on-skin contact, it’s been
trained for hand-on-keyboard contact (Gabe Deem, 2015).
In a video recorded on day eighty-one of his “NoFap” experiment,
AjaxUnchained explains that at a certain point (without going into specifics about
his age at the time) he could not get an erection without the aid of pornography.
He would not be able to achieve an erection with a real woman.
I could only get [it] up when looking on porn vids, or when I’m getting
ready to masturbate. Even when I was having sex, uhm, I couldn’t get it
up, and that was fucking depressing. […] Even if I drank, I would still get
ED [erectile dysfunction], I still wouldn’t be able to perform
(AjaxUnchained, 2016a).
He explains that he was able to achieve an erection with a woman on occasions,
but for this to happen he had to imagine watching pornography. “When you see a
real person, it doesn’t match up with how your brain is wired. Because your brain
is wired to getting hard on only pictures and videos” (AjaxUnchained, 2016a). In
the case of the other video diarist, Hayden Rose, he never experienced sexual po-
tency problems to the point of not being able to achieve an erection. However, he
mentions that after having watched pornography for a period of 10 years, he re-
quired “more stimuli to get […] a strong erection” (Hayden Rose, 2016). He felt
that he experienced weaker erections to the point of coming near to losing his sex-
ual potency completely. According to his understanding of this experience, “your
mind is not going to be able to understand the difference between, you know, what
you’re watching on the screen and a real-life situation” (AjaxUnchained, 2016a).
Text diarist wally_s first started watching Internet pornography in early 2000.
I am 52 years old and have been using internet porn for probably fourteen
years or so. I got my first high-speed connection in the fall of 2001 and
immediately took to going after porn clips and pics in large quantities and
frequently. Honestly, I really thought that lots of jerking off was a healthy
thing and that it would make things even stronger for when the right girl
came along (wally_s, 2015).
Well then, needless to say now, when the right girl did come along last fall
and after a couple weeks of dating, she gave herself to me… I couldn’t get
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it up, no erection, nothing. I was horrified, embarrassed, worst feeling in
the world (wally_s, 2015).
At first, he suspected a medical condition. Due to this, he tried medication.
However, he noticed that pornography was the determining factor. With it, erec-
tions were possible, without it, they were not.
I am brand new to this pill stuff, by the way. I mean, last fall I did try half
a pill right when I first got the samples, and then I, of course, went right to
the internet porn to see how things worked. Dumb, I know, but I was dumb
to all of this then. Had no inkling of an idea of PIED or NoFap or anything.
I just wanted the wang to work, and with the porn it did, of course (wally_s,
2015).
It was through reading about other peoples’ experiences with PIED that he
ended up self-diagnosing.
I confess, a few months ago when I first began learning about PIED and
PMO
6
addiction, my initial reaction was one of hopelessness. I thought to
myself, “Oh no! I’ve been doing this for so long, there can’t be any hope for
my poor brain. I’ve wrecked myself for sure!” But pretty quickly I was set
straight by information and especially testimonials of recovered people,
and not only recovered but enjoying lives beyond any expectations. Truly
amazing stories that are not only believable but totally motivating
(wally_s, 2015).
Another text diarist, the user applehead, mentions that his realisation coin-
cided with him and his wife trying to conceive a child. “[W]e were trying to con-
ceive, and my PIED was not allowing it” (applehead, 2015). He had a desire for
pornography, but not for actual intercourse. “It only manifested itself in PIED and
the fact that I had no desire for real sex” (applehead, 2015).
The online interview respondents were between the ages of 14 to 26 at the time
of realisation that they might be suffering from PIED. The problem here is that
other factors that are difficult to determine might be at play. The young ages of the
respondents and the fact that they were able to achieve erections in other situations
suggest that medicinal factors independent of PIED, such as an impaired blood
supply, are improbable explanations, but they cannot be ruled out. Performance
anxiety may also be a factor but may perhaps be ruled out in a case such as Hor-
ace’s. He explains:
At 17 with my first and only partner. At first I couldn't get an erection for
more than a few seconds, when I later did it wasn't hard enough at all but
it got better after a few tries (I sure was nervous) and we managed to have
sex regularly however I was never a 100% erect or even aroused. i [sic]
never had a reliable and stable erection - I'd loose [sic] it easily - even in
midst of penetration sometimes. I never was able to orgasm with her, not
even with my own hand. At that time I was using 2 times a day on average.
[…] I googled the symptoms, found NoFap &ybop and the symptoms fit: I
can get an intense erection/orgasm with porn but only a weak and unstable
6
PMO stands for ”Pornography, Masturbation, Orgasm”
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erection and no orgasm without it. I've been (ab)using porn for years and
when I tried to stop I just couldn't (Horace, online interview, February 21,
2017).
I rule out performance anxiety in this particular case because even when Hor-
ace was by himself he experienced difficulties achieving an erection and orgasm
without pornography.
Whether or not performance anxiety or some other physiological problem was
the determining factor, what is significant is that the respondents came to the con-
clusion that PIED was the cause. Andre mentions: “I was having trouble to get fully
erect even with hardcore porn. With 'normal' porn I could not maintain an erection
at all. With a real partner it was even worse” (Andre, online interview, February 18,
2017).
Patric:
I had another encounters with other people but I had one not too long ago
that made realize I was suffering something weird that I did not know as I
could not understand at that time how there was no issue with my erection
watching porn, but could not have one when I was with somebody else
(Patric, online interview, March 7, 2017).
Realization happens through one or more of these ways: through an experience
with a partner; through reading about other people’s experiences online; or
through researching addiction, specifically the role of dopamine in developing de-
pendency. All of the diarists and respondents self-diagnose.
Re-boot Process
After having concluded that he might suffer from PIED, Gabe Deem stopped
watching pornography and masturbating. He lived through a depression for six
months and experienced insomnia and social anxiety. After a few weeks he noticed
a decrease in sex drive. He considers these to be withdrawal symptoms and con-
cludes that he was dependent on porn to function normally, that is, he suffered
from an addiction. After six months without pornography and masturbation, he
noticed a return of his sex drive. After nine months he regained his sexual potency
and was able to have intercourse.
AjaxUnchained mentions that on day 81 of his re-boot process, quitting por-
nography and masturbation, he again experienced sexual arousal and achieved
erection outside of pornography. He says that he now gets aroused by merely ob-
serving women out on the street. He believes that the recovery happened at around
day 30. “I think it probably happened to me after 30 days. So, start looking for the
ED to go away maybe after thirty days, before sixty or something like that”
(AjaxUnchained, 2016a). In another video, recorded about five months later, he
describes his sexual encounter with women after giving up pornography and mas-
turbation. He describes how he contacted a girl to “test out” and see whether he
would still experience difficulties getting an erection. This was three months prior
to the recording of the video, meaning that it happened around two months after
the video discussed above (the one recorded on day eighty-one of the re-boot pro-
cess). The woman he contacted was someone with whom he had experienced erec-
tile dysfunction earlier. This time, he experienced no sexual potency problems at
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all. Subsequent sexual encounters after this have also been successful in terms of
sexual potency (AjaxUnchained, 2016b).
As for Hayden Rose, after having stopped watching pornography (and mastur-
bating), he has experienced a change. Previously, he needed “more and more stim-
uli” to gain an erection, and now they come spontaneously. This has made him
conclude that PIED is “very real” (Hayden Rose, 2016).
Since the realization, text diarist wally_s has tried to give up pornography and
masturbation. As of yet, he as not recorded any progress in terms of recovering
from PIED, since there have been no sexual interactions since the last attempt, that
is, he has not yet had an opportunity to determine whether giving up pornography
has affected his sexual potency: “I look forward to my next sexual experience. Can't
be helped, man, because my last was a PIED fail and that night is stuck in my mind”
(wally_s, 2015). On the other hand, applehead mentions that his experiment ap-
pears to have worked. Giving up pornography seems to have affected his sexual
potency positively after about two months: “I did not get any relief from PIED until
around 60-70 days in my first streak” (applehead, 2015). Mooses67 records the
same progress. Three weeks into the experiment, he writes: “PIED and DE all but
cured. Have had sex a few times with greater inclination to intimacy and simulta-
neous O[rgasm]. That has been rare” (Mooses67, 2016). On day 28 he writes:
“PIED has all but dissipated. Sex with the wife has been quite nice.” On day 30: “I
have had sex with my beautiful wife a few times, and each time PIED has not been
an issue.” He does, however, mention a relapse which caused the PIED to return:
From the time I returned from Croatia until last Monday, I was PMOimg
[sic] with reckless abandon. I enjoyed it the first few times, then it quickly
became a burden just like the old days. I'd be fapping and scrolling through
tube sites just wishing it could be over. Then the PIED returned. Monday
night was the most recent occurrence coinciding with the Great Stress doc-
umented above. I haven't felt like it since (Mooses67, 2016).
For two of the online interview respondents, as with Gabe Deem, avoiding por-
nography has in fact restored their ability to achieve an erection. To them, this
gives further credence to the theory that pornography caused their erectile dys-
function. Frederick explains:
First girl I tried to have sex was when I was 19 and it did not work at all. I
had ED. After that I had a girlfriend and I tried not to watch porn at all
when I knew we can be toghether [sic], because if I did (no matter if one
clip or more, one session or more, lo-hi resolution) I could not get it up at
all. It took about 2-3 days no porn-watching to be able to have sex […]
During time I tried to stop watching porn (from around 25 years of age).
Only complete stop for several days showed some progress, but not 100%.
It took about 8 days to get satisfactory erection. After about 15 days, I was
even able to enjoy the real sex, that was not the case (Frederick, online
interview, March 1, 2017).
Owen:
Yes, my reboot has worked completely. I am two years porn free. I can
maintain an erection effortlessly, and sex feels incredible. I regret that I
ever looked at porn and directed my life in such a way. Nothing positive
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and only negative came from having porn in my life. I am still fixing the
mess I made of myself with porn. It stunts you as a human being when you
start looking at it so young. I never learned to problem solve, be compas-
sionate, have empathy, or see other people as anything much beyond meat
for my personal use. It's as though I got locked in that selfish 9-year-old
child place and never left it. You constantly escape the world of adult re-
sponsibility [sic] and maturity to consume porn when life gets hectic. As a
consequence, you never learn to be an adult until you stop (Owen, online
interview, March 8, 2017).
Since several of the respondents have yet to attempt sexual intercourse with a
partner, it is inconclusive whether the re-boot process has worked or not. The same
could perhaps be said for the two respondents that have not yet been able to per-
form sexually even after having stopped their pornography consumption, since
they might require more time. Cole mentions: “I have yet to orgasm with a real
woman.”
Finally, Owen, explains how he started viewing reality through the lens of his
media consumption:
Mid-March of 2015 is the last time I have viewed screen porn of any type.
My fiancee [sic] was at the end with me. All the lies, secrecy, erratic per-
sonality, lack of caring, and all the other garbage I had been doing. She was
nine months pregnant. I was losing her and my son that hadn't even been
born yet. I told her I would drop porn. And I did. What I didn't account for
at that time was my own brain. I was still fantasizing, still objectifying peo-
ple in public, still masturbating to porn fantasy. Purging the porn from my
brain was a much longer process that took a year and a half approximately.
I realized that screen porn and porn thoughts had been a crutch through-
out my life. I resorted to porn and porn thoughts when stressed, angry,
overwhelmed, frustrated or even just bored. These epiphanies made me
understand how weak and avoidant I was. I also started understanding
how negatively porn has affected society in so many ways, and continues
to negatively impact culture. My porn thoughts disrespected me and eve-
ryone around me. I also had given myself prostate issues which I still live
with today. […] Giving up screen porn was easy. Cleaning up my porn brain
was not. It started off with redirecting my thoughts when they would wan-
der off into porn directions. That evolved into recognizing when my
thoughts were wandering - my brain was in auto-pilot. I had a tendency to
not be actively aware of my mind. Taking control and being actively aware
instead of auto-piloting was a huge key. The next step was dealing with
societal triggers like objectifying people, commercials, magazine covers,
internet click bait, billboards, movies and television. Not allowing those
things to lead me down the road of porn thoughts (Owen, online interview,
March 8, 2017).
Discussion
The following points are the main conclusions about what PIED is. They relate
to how those who believe to be suffering from PIED understand their problems.
▪ The sufferer gets introduced to pornography relatively early; either as a pre-pubes-
cent or during adolescence.
▪ A habit is built up, with regular – often times daily – pornography consumption and
masturbation.
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▪ As one gets de-sensitized to the usual pornographic material, one feels a need to es-
calate to more “shocking” content in order to reach the same level of arousal.
▪ During this period of building up a habit and escalating to more extreme content,
the sufferers perceive, or believe, that their brains get acclimatized to pornogra-
phy consumption to the point of associating arousal with watching pornography.
When this reaches a critical stage at which the brain exclusively associates
arousal with pornography – and later extreme pornography, such as pornography
including violent elements – erectile dysfunction kicks in. Regular pornography
turns boring in the sense that one does not feel the same level of arousal any-
more. Finally, sexual intercourse itself turns boring and one needs to either fanta-
size about or watch extreme pornography to achieve an erection. There is, thus, a
clear correlation between heavy pornography use and erectile dysfunction.
▪ The sufferer learns about PIED and self-diagnoses through one or more of the fol-
lowing steps: one, accessing expert knowledge (learning about addiction, the role
of dopamine, and so on.); two, by meeting women and experiencing erection re-
lated problems; three, by discovering an online community dedicated to the issue
and reading similar stories online. He then tries to “re-boot” the brain, by giving
up pornography and masturbation. The goal is to end the procedure by which
arousal becomes associated with the screen, in order to re-associate arousal with
sexual intercourse. Some of the respondents and diarists report that this has
worked.
Implications for theory
As previously stated one of McLuhan’s statements about man being rendered
inactive through watching action on the screen (McLuhan, 1964, p. 5) could, in the
present context, be paraphrased “the man of sex who appears not to be involved in
sex”. Consider the case of the respondent Dante, who would spend most of his day
watching pornography and masturbating (being “a man of sex”) without actually
being able to engage in sexual relations with a person (never “involved in sex”).
McLuhan highlights the hypnotizing effect of modern media, claiming that this
leads to amputation (McLuhan, 1964, p. 12) and numbness (McLuhan, 1964, p. 6).
Now, McLuhan (1964) does not make an explicit sexual connection in this regard,
but the implications are not, I think, far-fetched: modern media is powerful
enough to hypnotise modern man to the point of a metaphorical numbness or am-
putation of the penis – that is, impotence.
When the media consumer falls under the hypnotic spell of the relevant me-
dium, “the subliminal state of Narcissus trance” (McLuhan, 1964, p. 16) ensues. It
is through this discussion about the Narcissus myth (in chapter four of his book)
that McLuhan perhaps comes closest to actually predicting PIED, which is why I
shall quote him extensively.
[The name Narcissus] is from the Greek word narcosis, or numbness. The
youth Narcissus mistook his own reflection in the water for another per-
son. This extension of himself by mirror numbed his perceptions until he
became the servomechanism of his own extended or repeated image. The
nymph Echo tried to win his love with fragments of his own speech, but in
vain. He was numb. He had adapted to his extension of himself and had
become a closed system. Now the point of this myth is the fact that men at
once become fascinated by any extension of themselves in any material
other than themselves. […] [T]he wisdom of the Narcissus myth does not
convey any idea that Narcissus fell in love with anything he regarded as
himself. Obviously he would have had very different feelings about the
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image had he known it was an extension or repetition of himself (McLu-
han, 1964, p. 45-46).
If one translates this to the topic at hand, the text could instead read something
like this: The extension of the modern Narcissus’s self by the computer screen
numbs his perception until he becomes the servomechanism of the pornographic
images and reduced to a closed system. The consequences of this are not abstract,
they are very much tangible: the numbness is quite literal, it is actual impotence.
A real-life person (who corresponds to the nymph Echo in the myth) might try to
win his love with real life sex, but in vain. He is now numb (impotent). He has
adapted to his extension of himself (by associating arousal with reflective sex) and
become a closed system, unable to perform sexually except with himself and the
reflection.
McLuhan goes on to explain the mechanisms at work as this phenomenon en-
sues. Why does self-extension lead to numbness?
In the physical stress of superstimulation of various kinds, the central
nervous system acts to protect itself by a strategy of amputation or isola-
tion of the offending organ, sense, or function. […] Such amplification is
bearable by the nervous system only through numbness or blocking of per-
ception. This is the sense of the Narcissus myth. The young man’s image is
a self-amputation or extension induced by irritating pressures. As counter-
irritant, the image produces a generalized numbness or shock that declines
recognition. […] The function of the body, as a group of sustaining and
protective organs for the central nervous system, is to act as buffers against
sudden variations of stimulus in the physical and social environment
(McLuhan, 1964, p. 46-48).
In other words: Modern technology with its different media over-stimulates
the individual to the point of extending the central nervous system. This entails a
shock to this system which reacts to the pressure it has to endure by a self-protec-
tive numbness, or “autoamputation”, i.e. by shutting down an “organ, sense, or
function”. One need not accept the medical reasoning behind this explanation to
at least recognise its theoretical relevance to PIED. In fact, PIED might serve as a
case in point – perhaps the case in point – for what McLuhan is speaking of here.
Using this aspect of McLuhan’s theory, one might say that pornography proves to
be such a powerful superstimulant that the central nervous system reacts to it with
the self-protective measure of amputating an organ and a function. This causes the
impotence. One might say that McLuhan offers an etiology of PIED.
Implications for Research and Practice
The interdisciplinary nature of the problem at hand means that more research
in different fields is needed to get a comprehensive understanding of the matter.
My field is sociology, and the present study is a sociological one, I shall therefore
be focusing on the implications for sociological research.
PIED is not the only social problem related to online pornography consump-
tion; further studies about other social effects of pornography consumption should
complete the picture that has been painted here. For example, even if erectile dys-
function per se does not become an issue, pornography consumption could lead to
a decrease in motivation to find a sexual partner (and, hence, start a family) or
engage in social activities in general. In fact, this has already been suggested by
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studies discussed in the literature review; for example, a 2017 meta-analysis has
demonstrated that a preponderance of studies involving males report a correlation
between greater pornography consumption and less sexual and relationship satis-
faction (Wright, Tokunaga, et. al., 2017).
Pornography addiction also has the potential to affect one’s sexual health in
other unforeseen ways, and further exploratory studies should be undertaken to
ascertain what these possible effects (related to expectations about sex, sexual self-
esteem, romantic relationships, etc.) could be. Also, a study such as this one deals
with only one specific aspect of the emergent “digital society” that is taking shape
in our time. The relationship between online pornography consumption to gaming
addiction, social media addiction, online gambling and other forms of compulsive
digital activities should also be explored. It could be argued that the digital society
runs the risk of outcompeting the “real thing” in general, where an online presence
is prioritized over social relationships in real life. If that is the case, PIED is merely
one symptom of a larger social problem that needs to be studied holistically. It
should also be stated that the findings of this study have been limited in terms of
the “re-boot” process, where men who suffer from PIED try to give up pornography
in order to regain their sexual potency. In other words, more longitudinal studies
are needed to assess the success rates of the re-boot process. Also, since I have
attempted to identify the process whereby PIED develops, more research is needed
to corroborate (or challenge) my own findings, and this includes quantitative stud-
ies featuring larger number of respondents.
Without setting out to conclusively establish a causal relationship between por-
nography addiction and erectile dysfunction, this study shows that pornography
consumption does not come without its risks. The men in this study have reported
that pornography consumption has had a detrimental effect on their sexual health.
For some, giving up pornography has improved their sexual relationships. This
study complements others that likewise indicate a correlation between pornogra-
phy addiction and sexual dysfunction. Clinical practitioners dealing with men who
report erectile dysfunction might therefore consider investigating their pornogra-
phy consumption and masturbation habits. If it is established that the men in ques-
tion are able to gain and sustain erections whilst watching pornography (and in
particular the extreme variety), then it might be worth eliminating pornography to
ascertain whether this reverses the effects of heavy consumption. Mainly, this
study along with others that contain similar results, shows that further investiga-
tion into the possibility that erectile dysfunction (particularly amongst young men)
could be treated as a problem associated with pornography is warranted, and that
clinical practitioners should discuss the matter with their patients and raise their
awareness about a possible relationship between the two.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author thanks to Professor Magnus Boström of Örebro University, Sweden. His help
and guidance made the present study possible. Dignity thanks the following reviewer for
his time and expertise in reviewing this article: John Foubert, Dean, College of Education,
Union University, USA.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Hamdija Begovic obtained his Master’s degree in sociology from Örebro University,
Sweden, in 2017. He currently teaches Sociology at Örebro University, Sweden.
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RECOMMENDED CITATION
Begovic, Hamdija. (2019). Pornography induced erectile dysfunction among young men.
Dignity: A Journal of Sexual Exploitation and Violence. Vol. 4, Issue 1, Article 5.
https://doi.org/10.23860/dignity.2019.04.01.05 Available at
http://digitalcommons.uri.edu/dignity/vol4/iss1/5.
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