Are Porn Tube Sites Causing Erectile Dysfunction?

Might tube sites be to porn what crack is to cocaine?

You've read it before, right? "Porn has been around since ancient times and Internet porn is fundamentally no different." Some porn users, however, are telling a different story, and it's one that therapists with porn-using clients need to hear.

The degree and intensity of novel erotica available via tube sites has never been duplicated in mankind's history, and it appears to be having a dismal effect on sexual health. (Even after giving up porn, guys sometimes go through months of no libido to restore performance.)

• "I discovered tube sites in 2006. I remember it, VIVIDLY. It was like....porn on steroids, big time. I mean it was WAY hotter than seeking out little 15 second clips, waiting for them to download, then proceeding."
• "It was only a few years ago that I discovered tube sites, and I think those are the worst for warping your brain.
• "The tube sites screwed up everything. They changed the history of porn."

So what is a "tube site?" A porn veteran explains:

In mid-2006, the world of porn underwent a transformation. The major players (PornoTube/RedTube/YouPorn) all introduced YOUtube-style streaming videos. Before this momentous event, you had to download the video, then open it, and risk getting a virus. Sometimes you didn't have the right software, so you spent a lot of time making sure it was what you wanted to see before downloading it and 'enjoying' it, or you would go to a specific site whose content you liked, watch the one or two new videos and leave it at that.

More recently, porn delivery evolved in the direction of video gallery sites (increasingly referred to as 'tube sites') which aggregate pages of thumbnails of streaming tube videos from different porn sites.  No guesswork, no pause while downloading. You look across a matrix of thumbnails of videos with maybe 100 or so screenshots, see a picture that floats your boat and click on it.

However, porn purveyors want hits, so your click may take you to that video, or it may take you to another site that you didn't intend to visit, often another gallery site, which is giving the first site a referral kick-back. Now you've got two pages of thumbnails open. At first, you find that annoying and close one, but after things deteriorate, something on the new page catches your eye and you click on that, making a mental note to go back to the first thumbnail. ....and so on until you find yourself with 20 tabs open.

In a moment we'll look at the science behind why this profusion of ready erotica is uniquely risky, and the chaos it's causing for some users. But first let's hear from another user about how tube sites are different:

1. There are two parts to a physical sexual experience: the build-up of arousal, and then the sex. In normal porn there is usually more emphasis on (a crap) story. It often conveys some intimacy and touch etc. (Even though you are not physically experiencing it, you are mentally connecting more with those thoughts.) But on a tube site a clip is often a mere 3-5 minutes long. You go straight from 0 to 100mph. Arousal isn't a slow, relaxed, teasing build-up of expectation. It is straight to full-on orgasmic f--king.  
2. Because tube clips are so short, you do a LOT more clicking to novel clips for various reasons: one is way too short to build up arousal; you don't know what will be in the clip till you watch it; endless curiosity, etc.
3. The variety on tube sites is limitless.

It was around 2006 that men began showing up at our website complaining of Internet porn addiction and wondering if their unexpected symptoms were related to porn use. Now, a trickle has become a tsunami, and guys all over the Web are complaining of extreme sexual performance problems and other symptoms. While the advent of Internet porn, and then the arrival of highspeed and torrent downloads of porn, increased rates of porn-related problems, many guys didn't notice severe problems until the rise of tube sites:

First guy: I used to not look at video much; but now you can go on ___.com and put in a video search- wallah!- you see dozens and dozens of clips to click on. All kinds of variety. Watching video was a "step-up" in terms of a high, versus pictures. I started noticing some ED symptoms within a year or two.

Second guy: For me, the tube sites were the final nail in the coffin as far as developing erectile dysfunction. I'd looked at pictures for years (well over a decade), and video clips from time to time. But when the tube sites became my daily fare, it was only shortly afterward that I developed ED problems. I think the tube sites, with their endless clips immediately accessible, threw my brain into overload. And that's probably when the real numbing of my pleasure response began. I'd be curious to see the distribution between men who never visited the streaming video sites (if any exist!), and men who stuck solely to still pics. There could potentially be an interesting correlation there.

Third guy: I spent over a decade looking at still pictures (only) without developing any form of ED. I didn't visit the tube sites regularly until March, 2011 - when we got very high speed access. Within 6 months, I had my first experience of ED...literally for the first time in my life. I'm well aware that 'correlation does not equal causality'...so I think a healthy degree of skepticism is a good idea. I always assumed that age could also have been a factor for me.

Fourth guy [in reply to Third guy]: I'm 21 and got ED from switching to tube sites. Age is irrelevant I think.

Novelty-overload paradox

Endlessly novel tube sites, and their "hottest byte of the video" thumbnails, constitute supernormal stimulation—compared with the usual mating cues (and frequency) human brains evolved with. Because tube sites hammer people's prime arousal chimes, they can trick them into abandoning the rewards of real sex for synthetic sex cues. This happens to other animals too. For example, male julodimorpha beetles mistake reddish-brown bottles for mates and spend the balance of their short existence in futile attempts to mate with them.

We humans perceive greater novelty as a road to greater satisfaction. But it's worth noting that satisfaction doesn't actually work that way...even when buying jeans. No matter how perfect something is, if there are more choices potentially available, our brain imagines we might do better, and urges us to keep seeking. Remember John Mayer's Playboy interview?

You're looking for the one ... out of 100 you swear is going to be the one you finish to, and you still don't finish. Twenty seconds ago you thought that [thumbnail] was the hottest thing you ever saw, but you throw it back and continue your shot hunt and continue to make yourself late for work.

According to the research of psychologist Barry Schwartz, limitless choice is not a recipe for happiness. If tube sites make us too choosy, we can never be pleasantly surprised, and can easily become obsessed with the fear that we might have done better. That takes the joy out of life.

With dizzying quantities of novel "partners" vying for immediate attention, some porn users spend far more time searching for the perfect clip to "fertilize," than self-pleasuring.  Not surprisingly, many report that compulsive tendencies worsen. Increasingly finicky, they describe feeling tense and dissatisfied even after climax.

Their behavior is driven by the brain's reward circuitry, which runs on the "go get it" neurochemical, dopamine. Together, anticipation and novelty amplify the message that tube surfing is really important—and the brain strengthens related circuitry accordingly. In keeping with Schwartz's insight, a German team found that porn-related problems correlated most, not with time spent viewing, but with number of screens opened and degree of arousal.

Risky buffets

A second risk of tube-site buffets is overconsumption. A professor in the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Division of Preventive and Behavioral Medicine, Sheri Pagoto PhD,  writes: 

Studies on appetite show that variety is strongly associated with overconsumption. You will eat more at a buffet than you will when meatloaf is the only thing on the table. In neither scenario will you leave hungry but in one you will leave regretful. In other words, [if you want to circumvent overconsumption and its problems] avoid the buffets of life.

Professor Pagoto points out that,

By frequently seeking extreme forms of sexual stimulation, the porn addict will eventually develop an inability to experience sexual pleasure from normal sexual activity; and if the habit goes long enough, an inability to experience pleasure from anything except porn. This pattern of behavior actually changes the brain’s “baseline” of what turns them on. As you can imagine, serious problems develop.  First sexual problems, then relationship problems, and then work problems.

It's not that food or sexual arousal are "bad." Things go awry when an activity "become[s] necessary, a 'go to,' preferred over normal life experiences." Not surprisingly, a 2011 study (USA) found that, "Higher frequencies of [porn] use were associated with less sexual and relationship satisfaction."

"Uh-oh...where's my erection?"

Endless in-your-face variety not only promotes higher-than-usual consumption (because the brain evolved to motivate us to pursue novelty). It typically also decreases sensitivity to pleasure. One common result is decreased feelings of satisfaction; the brain wants more and more.

In the case of porn buffets, another effect men often report is loss of sexual responsiveness. Decreased response to pleasure is common in all addictions, both behavioral and chemical. As erections and orgasm depend in part on sensitivity to dopamine in a key part of the brain, it appears that a decreased sensitivity to dopamine is making some users less sexually responsive too. 

But a numbed pleasure response is probably only one factor, especially for the younger guys. They appear to be wiring their sexual response to sexual cues that are so different from human sexuality that they don't respond normally to the "real deal" when a three-dimensional partner turns up. See Did Porn Warp Me Forever? (Salon.com), written by a 23-year old. Another young guy explains,

Fapping to porn is totally passive, you sit there and pleasure yourself. Sex with a partner is very different. It can be very unnerving to actually have to participate when all you've known is your own touch. The sights, smells, and feelings are completely different. Visually, your perspective is not that of a cameraman, so you're not just focusing on that view you love (whatever it is). It's soooo different.

Wrap up

As with some other technological advances, humanity has apparently outsmarted itself with the creation of tube sites. One insightful observer commented,

If people have the right to be tempted—and that’s what free will is all about—the market is going to  respond by supplying as much temptation as can be sold. Market incentive continues well beyond the point where a superstimulus begins wreaking collateral damage on the consumer. —Eliezer Yudkowsky

What makes tube sites the Bermuda Triangle of porn? Judging from men's self-reports we'd say:

• Using a tube site, users seek for, and consume, more novelty per session than ever. They tend to overconsume, and risk numbing their response to sexual pleasure.
• Tube sites offer videos, rather than stills, so the viewer doesn't use his imagination and becomes a passive voyeur, no longer imagining himself as protagonist.
• Clips are shorter than normal sex and "cut to the chase," rewiring users' sexuality to an unnaturally hasty sexual rhythm.
• Hotter thumbnails/clips, endless novelty and abundant material that violates expectations constitute supernormal stimulation, and may rewire users' sexuality to pixels that goose the reward circuitry more than real mates.
• Searches for the perfect clip tend to ratchet up anxiety.
• Tube sites are intense brain-training—but not for real sex, as demonstrated by viewers' unreliable erections with partners.

If you're going to view porn, think about sticking to drawings on cave walls and murals in Pompeii. You're here because your ancestors' erections remained reliable. If you have exceeded your limit, check out some stories of others' successes.

Update: Dr. Oz Show addresses porn-induced erectile dysfunction January 31, 2013

NEW: Adolescent Brain Meets Highspeed Internet Porn (half-hour presentation on sexual conditioning and the adolescent brain)