Читать книгу Always Turned On - Jennifer Schneider - Страница 16

Nearly all modern day sex addicts have fallen victim to the Internet’s Triple-A Engine⁹ of accessibility, affordability, and anonymity. To understand how the Triple-A Engine works, consider the following stories about porn use and casual sex thirty years ago versus today.

Porn in 1985: Joe, a resident of Boston, wanted to look at porn one day, so he got up, got dressed, and rode the train for nearly half an hour to the city’s infamous “Combat Zone,” where he knew about an adult bookstore. There he spent nearly $100 on a small pile of magazines filled with grainy imagery. For Joe, that was quite a lot of money—more than he could really afford. Plus, he spent the entire trip watching over his shoulder hoping to not be seen by a friend, neighbor or someone from his church. Over the course of the next few weeks Joe enjoyed looking at and masturbating to the pornography, but as the imagery became increasingly familiar, he lost interest. Within a month he was back on the train, surreptitiously headed back to the Combat Zone, ready to once again spend money he didn’t really have on a new batch of pornography.

Porn in 2015: Joe picked up his smartphone on his nightstand and uttered the words, “show me some porn.” No train ride, no $100 outlay, and no boredom with the imagery because the Internet provides an endless and ever-changing supply. No muss, no fuss, just the porn, thank you very much.

Seeking a one night stand in 1985: Amy, an unmarried resident of Minneapolis, was feeling lonely one evening. Hoping to meet Mr. Right (or at least Mr. Right Now) she showered, styled her hair, put on makeup, spritzed herself with perfume, and slipped into her slinky black dress. Then she walked downstairs from her second floor apartment into the freezing cold Minnesota winter, hailed a cab, and took an expensive ride to a singles bar on the other side of town (not wanting any of her friends or neighbors to see her and figure out what she was up to). At the club she bought herself a couple of overpriced drinks and waited for a decent looking man to display interest in her. Several men offered to buy her a drink, but none of them were her “type.” Eventually, dejected and depressed, she left the bar and took the long cab ride home.

Seeking a one night stand in 2015: Amy was feeling lonely one evening. She put some popcorn in the microwave while clicking on her Tinder smartphone app. While snacking in her bathrobe and slippers she noticed a cute guy right away. She swiped his profile to indicate interest, and before her microwave popcorn was gone she was sexting him. Twenty minutes later he arrived at her doorstep, happy to share popcorn, a movie, and a little bit more with her. No hours of preparation, no expensive cab ride or overpriced drinks, no parade of losers, no sore feet and ankles from standing around in high heels for three hours, and no disappointment at the end of the night.

The reality is that sexual content and contacts are now readily available to anyone at the touch of a digital button. Barriers that existed just a few decades ago no longer exist. You don’t even need an actual computer. Laptops, tablets, e-readers, smartphones, gaming platforms, and numerous other devices will serve you nicely for tonight’s sexual hookup. Nor do you need to be a techno-genius because digital devices, websites, and apps are incredibly user-friendly. Pornography and casual sexual connections can now be accessed anywhere, anytime, by anyone who’s interested—with that interest typically fulfilled almost immediately. And this, of course, can be quite problematic for cybersex addicts.