Review of Drew Boa's "Outgrow Porn"
In a 2012 interview, Dr. Patrick Carnes (the man who coined the term sex addiction) related a story about a patient who had been exposed to pornographic pictures as a young boy, and that man would continue to seek out the same kinds of pornography he saw in those pictures for years. Dr. Carnes stated that this man’s emotional development was stunted at the age when he first encountered those pictures and continued to seek them out. 1 ...
How to Block All Porn on Android
This guide is for Android specifically which assumes you have a smartphone or tablet of some kind, but before we really get into Android we should first consider the simplest line of attack. Do you need the device you have? Setting up a device can be a hassle, and if you have no other option it can feel like a blessing when you finally have the device configured with robust safety controls. But you might be able to breathe the same sigh of relief for a fraction of the effort. As Jared Henderson says, sometimes there’s a physical solution to a technical problem. ...
No One Reads Anything
When I first started learning how to use Linux more than a decade ago, I quickly encountered a phrase that you’ve no doubt seen as well if you’ve ever spent a day in the Linux community—RTFM, or Read the Flipping Manual. Back then I used to think, like you probably do now, that such a phrase is dismissive, rude, and reinforces a stereotype of elitism held by gatekeepers who don’t want to help. ...
Review of Gary Wilson's "Your Brain on Porn"
In 2012, TEDxGlasgow hosted a talk called The Great Porn Experiment by a man named Gary Wilson. In this talk, Wilson–an adjunct lecturer of biology at Oregon State University–would present a case for the view that Internet pornography has stolen a generation of young men through addiction. Two years later in 2014, Gary would publish a book that went into far greater detail than his TED talk. The book, Your Brain on Porn: Internet Pornography and the Emerging Science of Addiction, explores the neuroscience of addicion and intersplices quotes from NoFap (a forum for non-religious porn addicts) that typically confirm or elaborate on the various points presented throughout the book. Basically, Gary’s book explains what the science says about porn addiction, and then underscores the point with firsthand accounts from his collection of quotes from NoFap users. ...
One False Pleasure to Another
I’ve noticed a rather commonly held belief among men who flock to porn recovery forums. It seems many of these men, particularly the college-aged variety, regard it as a healthy behaviour and a sure-sign of recovery to hook up with strangers or people they barely know for sex (as an alternative to using porn). Whenever I come across such posts, I’m always skeptical of two things: one of the author’s authenticity, and two of his sincerity. ...
Should I install accountability software, an Internet filter, both, or something else?
In the battle Christians wage against the present darkness, 1 there are few enemies of the soul that measure up like the Internet pornography machine. But scripture tells us that where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more. 2 Truly we have seen this in the outpouring of support resources and digital health tools provided by people who care. Among these aids, Internet filters are quite popular because they make sense – remove the bad parts of the Internet without removing the good – and also because they offer people the sane option of living in a culture enmeshed with the Internet without losing their soul. 3 ...