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A brief reflection on porn, video games and life

Discussion in 'Self Improvement' started by knzer, Dec 8, 2015.

  1. knzer

    knzer Fapstronaut

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    tl;dr - It's possible to argue that you can still have motivation to have real-life achievements under regular usage of porn and video games, but hey, isn't it MUCH harder to decide to take the stairs when you know you can take the elevator?

    Our brain reinforces the neural pathways that led to a release of dopamines (And the resulting pleasure). This means with regular porn use and masturbation, it develops positive association between sitting alone in front of a computer, thinking of sexual fantasies that may never occur in reality, etc., and other related unproductive behaviors/thoughts with the ultimate pleasure of orgasm.


    This is bad because then the brain will have less incentive to reinforce/develop productive behavior/thoughts, for the simple reason of, why go the hard way of reaching orgasm by trying to have sex with real life human? It also means it'll be harder to not do porn as the pathways are reinforced more with repeated porn usages.


    Human achievements are said to be largely driven by sexual desires - To pass on genes to the next generation. When there's an obvious short cut to satisfying it, of course the brain will then reinforce just the pathways necessary to get you there fast, and not much other pathways.


    The brain seeks to work along the path of the least resistance. We're all lazy to some extent, e.g. forming stereotypes and generalizations to cut down the volume of thought. That's why we have racism, sexism, etc. It's perhaps because we want to preserve our expenditure of energies as much as possible to maximize survival chances.


    When your path to the ultimate pleasure is simply jerking off at home alone, that becomes the path of the least resistance. All in all, your brain now has not much reasons to keep developing pathways for your social skills, ability to attract/court females, drive/ability to career success, etc, simply because it has found a simple button that leads to one of the highest pleasures in life.


    This could be said of the same with video games, as it provides an easy substitute of the process that leads to real mental rewards. When video games are of a large portion of your life, it's difficult for your brain to provide sufficient motivation to real-life success, as again, why go the hard way to gain the same mental reward (sense of achievement) ?


    Of course, at the end of the day it's a matter of lifestyle choice. If your vision of life is about real-life success, then maybe porn and video games shouldn't be included in your life. If your vision of life is simply about enjoying life on a daily basis and not care much about achievements, maybe porn and video games are good substitutes. (And it's getting better and better with advancement of technology, e.g. VR glasses in near future)


    It's possible to argue that you can still have motivation to have real-life achievements under regular usage of porn and video games, but hey, isn't it MUCH harder to decide to take the stairs when you know you can take the elevator?
     
    Last edited: Dec 8, 2015
    TinyT, Jodokus and nfprogress like this.
  2. nfprogress

    nfprogress Fapstronaut

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    I think you more or less nailed it. For many PMO participants, it is very often about getting the reward without the work and without the messy details of implementing change and taking the harder path. I can very much relate to getting lost in a video game, perhaps moreso than getting lost in PMO (as PMO has a definite ending point and I tend to snap out of it rather easily when the time comes).
     
    knzer likes this.
  3. Jodokus

    Jodokus Fapstronaut

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    The is important for me as well. I can't enjoy life if I can't make real choices. A little porn is just not working, I have to stay on the path. And I want real-life success.
     
    knzer likes this.
  4. knzer

    knzer Fapstronaut

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    I'm sure that at least 10000 hours of my life were devoted into video games, lol.
    How I wished if that same amount of time were dedicated into developing my life or contributing in some way!
    Yes, I agreed that video games can be potentially much more time-consuming, as for PMO you can only have so much orgasms daily.
    For me, it's more difficult to quit PMO due to my occasionally irresistible libido haha.
     
  5. knzer

    knzer Fapstronaut

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    Let's do this together! : )
    Yeah, "A little porn" is still dangerous in my opinion.
    It's saying to your brain there's still this short cut you can take, but just don't take it as frequently.
    And sometimes "A little porn" just leads to a slippery slope for full-out binge.
     
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