Danish Ellahi
Pornography has been one of the effective tools used in keeping youths out of morality, decency and productivity. Pornography is simply a material such as books, magazines or photographs that depicts erotic behaviour and is intended to cause sexual excitement. It also shuns us from being Visionary and Committed to Worthwhile and good causes. Just like it took decades for science to prove that smoking cigarettes are harmful, we are learning a similar lesson from porn in our Society. Today Science and Research are proving that porn harms the brain, damages relationships, and is also linked to Prostitution & sex trafficking. Porn is a fantasy that is proven harder for users to have real loving married relationships. Research has found that after being exposed to porn, people were more critical of their partners’ appearance and displays. A porn habit can take a serious toll on a person’s abilities. Research and science are proving that porn harms the brain, damages relationships of a couple and negatively effects society as a whole. Particularly, feeling addicted to online pornography is associated with depression, anger and anxiety. The researchers suggest that it is the addictive nature, and sense that we are out of control that leads to mental health distress. Just like Drugs and other addictive substances, porn floods the brain with chemicals like Dopamine. Over time, the brain gets over whelmed by the constant overload of chemicals and starts to build up a dependency to pornography. As a result, the porn they were looking at in the beginning doesn’t seem as exciting and many porn users go hunting for more porn to get the same rush. Children are more likely to come across sexually explicit material online intentionally or unintentionally. The large quantity of explicit sexual content online increases the likelihood of young people to experience early sexual debuts or to have sexual experiences at a young age. Young people who frequently engage themselves with explicit sexual contents, which exhibit violent and objectifying themes, are more likely to imitate risky and violent sexual practices and to be more accepting of sexual objectification in society. They are also more likely to perceive other people’s values and worth solely based on sex appeal. Explicit sexual material, particularly pornography, impacts young people’s wellbeing, sexual practices, attitudes and social relationships. The exposure to explicit sexual content has been associated with addiction, poor self-esteem, devalued intimacy, objectification, increasing divorce rates and engagement in unprotected sex. The use of pornography has also been associated with discovering one’s own sexuality, reducing repressed feelings about sex and sexuality, being more open-minded to how others express their sexualities and being more open-minded to diverse forms of sex.
The internet is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it has revolutionised our world allowing people to communicate, gain knowledge, save time etc. On the other hand, it has become a conduit for some of the most primal desires and emotions we have as humans. Technology has also led us towards catastrophic desires especially the millennial generation to become absolutely dependent on it to fulfill these emotions. Right now pornography unfortunately is the king of the internet. Nowadays most children’s are exposed to pornography by the age of 11, and many of them are hooked on it by the time they are 12 years old. Unfortunately the internet has made pornography so easily available that it is almost difficult to avoid it, as very easy to find it. A pornography habit has the potential to cause these problems:-
1. Social isolation
• Withdrawing from social Activity
• Developing a secret life
• Choosing Porn over People
• It leads to Memory loss
• Feeling angry and depressed
2. Self-Loathing
• Feeling disconnected from person values, beliefs and goals.
• Damaged Self-esteem
3. Engaging in risking and dangerous behaviour
4. Accusing child abuse imagery
5. Participating in Degrading, Abusive, violent or criminal sexual activity.
Pornography is one of such shameless acts. Watching porn, even for one time is sinful in Islam. That’s spiritual, continuing with it has health and psychological implications.
Pornography significantly distorts attitudes and perceptions about the nature of sexual intercourse. Men who habitually look at pornography have a higher tolerance for abnormal sexual behaviour, sexual aggression, and promiscuity. Pornography is very addictive. The addictive aspect of pornography has a biological substrate, with dopamine hormone release acting as one of the mechanism for forming the transmission pathway to pleasure centers of the brain. Pornography affects people’s emotional lives. Married men who are involved in pornography feel less satisfied with their maritial sexual relations and less emotionally attached to their wives. Pornography may lead to infidelity and even divorce. Non-Muslims may be the main giants behind the industry. But sadly, Muslims are also addicted to pornography. Islam has prohibited upon us all sort of hideous and shameless acts and words. Pornography is one of such shameless acts. Watching porn, even for one time is sinful in Islam. That’s spiritual, continuing with it has health and psychological implications. Human beings are not perfect, and for that we are expected to fall to our weaknesses from time to time. When we have committed a sin, we need to repent sincerely. Say no to pornography.
(The author is a freelancer. Views are his own, [email protected])
