Sunday, May 10, 2015

"Porn and video game addiction are leading to 'masculinity crisis', says Stanford prison experiment psychologist"

I know an eight-year-old boy - whom I have written about before - who does little except play video games on his tablet. It's the first thing he does when he wakes up. He was also caught with about 180 porn bookmarks on his computer.

Eight years old. Video games and porn. Oh, I forgot - he comes from a broken home. What's he going to be like when he grows up?

This article was written by Doug Bolton and and is from The Independent.


A leading psychologist has warned that young men are facing a crisis of masculinity due to excessive use of video games and pornography.

Psychologist and professor emeritus at Stanford University Phillip Zimbardo has made the warnings, which form a major part of his latest book, Man (Dis)Connected.

In an interview on the BBC World Service's Weekend programme, Zimbardo spoke about the results of his study, an in-depth look into the lives of 20,000 young men and their relationships with video games and pornography.

He said: "Our focus is on young men who play video games to excess, and do it in social isolation - they are alone in their room."

"Now, with freely available pornography, which is unique in history, they are combining playing video games, and as a break, watching on average, two hours of pornography a week."

Zimbardo says there is a "crisis" amongst young men, a high number of whom are experiencing a "new form of addiction" to excessive use of pornography and video games.

Zimbardo gave a TED talk in 2011 outlining the problems facing young men's social development and academic achievement, which he puts down to excessive use of porn, video games and the internet.

He cited the example of a mother he met while conducting the study whose son does not see the problem in playing video games for up to 15 hours a day.

Zimbardo said: "For me, 'excess' is not the number of hours, it's a psychological change in mindset."

Giving an example of the mindset of a gaming and pornography-addicted young man, he says: "When I'm in class, I'll wish I was playing World of Warcraft. When I'm with a girl, I'll wish I was watching pornography, because I'll never get rejected."

Zimbardo claims that this relatively new phenomenon is affecting the minds of young men.

Citing the research he and his team conducted for the book, he says: "It begins to change brain function. It begins to change the reward centre of the brain, and produces a kind of excitement and addiction."

"What I'm saying is - boys' brains are becoming digitally rewired."

He also mentioned the growing problem of a disputed phenomenon called 'porn-induced erectile dysfunction', or PIED: "Young boys who should be virile are now having a problem getting an erection."

"You have this paradox - they're watching exciting videos that should be turning them on, and they can't get turned on."

An article from Psychology Today, however, argues that there are no demonstrable scientific links between porn consumption and erectile dysfunction.

In his opinion, the solution is to accept that the problem is serious - parents must become aware of the number of hours a child is spending alone in their room playing games and watching porn at the expense of other activities.

Zimbardo believes that excessive, solitary use of video games and porn is seriously stunting boys' social development He also blamed negative images of men in the American media, which show men as being "slobs, undesirable, only wanting to get laid and being inadequate in doing that."

He also called for better sex education in schools - which should focus not only on biology and safety, but also on emotions, physical contact and romantic relationships.

The pressing issue of male mental health is now a much more prominent concern than it once was. Last year saw the first Male Psychology Conference at University College London, intended to encourage the British Psychological Society to introduce a male specialist section, to sit alongside its female equivalent.

The charity Campaign Against Living Miserably, or CALM, was started in 2006 and has gained a high profile in recent years, for its efforts to encourage men to discuss mental health problems and bring down the male suicide rate.

Phillip Zimbardo is famous for the 1971 Stanford prison experiment, in which 24 students were asked to play the roles of 'guards' and 'prisoners' in a mock prison at Standford University. Intended to last for two weeks, the experiment was abandoned after six days, after the previously normal 'guards' became extremely sadistic and the 'prisoners' became submissive and depressed.

The experiment is believed to demonstrate the extreme impressionability and obedience of people when they are presented with a supporting ideology and power.

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

Note that he never defines what they should otherwise be doing.

Nations with an excess of idol young men traditionally find themselves wars to fight.

Anonymous said...

Nations with an excess of idol young men traditionally find themselves wars to fight.'

Yeah, the US is doing that too, with Ukraine and Russia, and China.

Unknown said...

'Oh, I forgot - he comes from a broken home.'

Ah yes they never mention the 300 pound elephant in the room when it comes to male crisis...all the fruits of feminism.

Mindstorm said...

Anon above, I guess you meant 'idle', not 'idol'. :)

Retrenched said...

Confusing cause with effect.

A.B. Prosper said...

Finding a war to fight that would sap off manpower and would not result in the end of civilization is a tricky thing.

The Ukraine proxy war will kill a few Russian men and a few Ukrainian people but its not a high casualty war and it can't be expanded into Russia.

Other powers? well Fight China? Doomsday. Russia? Doomsday.

The other options, India it is pointless , Middle East might also result in doomsday lite and invading say Mexico would not be acceptable. Africa is always a possibility but even with Boko Haram and ISIS in the region we haven't been able to gin up support.

We are kind of out of luck for outside wars.

As for the topic at hand, from the POV of the elite, this population issue is a good outcome anyway. They can keep bringing in cheaper ,more tractable labor for a few more generations till that runs out and coast from there. They'll be dead by than anyway.

I suppose the risk of ethnic war is always there but to them if surplus people die off, oh well. They figure people will be too busy infighting over scraps to deal with them.

In the end though exclusive of immigration issues, the world really is overpopulated for human social carrying capacity anyway and if say the US lost 80% of its people it would be fine.

With 80% decline we'd still have more people than the UK or Canada.

If we lost 2/3 -- we'd equal both and just a meager half would put us at the 70's level.

Yes granted that growth based endeavors won't be happy, oh well. You can't have everything.

The Obvious said...

If anybody wants a laugh, look up the onion parody of TED talks on youtube.

Retrenched said...

People may want to blame modern addictions and technology for the decline of masculinity, but such distractions and vices have always existed. Young men today have porn and video games; young men of the past had prostitutes and poker games.

Whats actually happened is that young men have been pushed out of the old male role without being given another role to replace it. Meanwhile young women are being forced into the old male role and away from the female role. This is causing a crisis of both masculinity and femininity by pushing both genders into roles they're ill suited for.

But The Cathedral will never allow the sacred dogma of egalitarianism to be questioned, so none of that will ever be addressed by the so called "experts" of our day.

Unknown said...

My father played poker in back rooms and took me with him.

But I have never before seen an eight-year-old wake up and start playing his tablet before he gets out of bed, or bookmark 108 porn sites, and when they were erased he tried to access them again. That's not a "crisis of masculinity," not at eight. And he's from a broken home.

I never said what he does is the cause. It's clearly the effect.

Unknown said...

'But The Cathedral will never allow the sacred dogma of egalitarianism to be questioned, so none of that will ever be addressed by the so called "experts" of our day.'

Nature itself will take care of egalitarianism. A lie is still a lie even if everyone believes it. The truth is still the truth even if nobody believes it.

dienw said...

I shut the TED video off once the speaker listed the three problems with guys:

Here's the problem:
1. flaming out academically? Has this person even been aware of the anti-male school environment: boys cannot thrive in such an environment.
2. flaming out with girls? Men have been driven out of the job market in the name of diversity: women are the preferred hirees; white males are the least preferred; that means you as a white male have been culled from the sex market as well.
3. flaming out sexually with girls? See above. Also, why would a man pursue a sex that can levy false rape charges against you. Or it you get married, you can loose all you strove for.

Glen Filthie said...

What?!?! Please - what would that lisping twit know about masculinity?

I'll tell you what's killing our boys: liberalism and the climate of permissiveness that celebrates the mediocre, the mundane and even the depraved.

Guys...go to a PTA meeting. SEE the cunned stunts, the clucky women, the flimpy beta males, and the guys like that fella in the vid that purport to 'educate your boys'. Fuggin BOB would be better role model for your boys than that lot!

Boys that do not perform academically need a smart cuff behind the ear. If they really screw up, they need the belt. What of it? When they play they need to throw snowballs, play hockey and wrestle - preferably with men like us that can take a shot, laugh it off and throw some attenuated ones back at your young fellas as they struggle to mature.

I blame the modern liberal woman: she is fat, she's a slut, and worst of all - she is a rancid bitch that has no place teaching girls, much less boys. Them - and parents who don't have time or the inclination to actually parent. The twits that want to be their children's best friends rather than their parents.

Video games and porn? Fah! Who told this idiot that? His mommy? His domineering girlfriend?

The Obvious said...

"Boys that do not perform academically need a smart cuff behind the ear. If they really screw up, they need the belt. What of it?"

There's plenty to make of that.

If girls don't "perform" as you say, do they get beaten as well?
And if teachers can't teach, do they get beaten too?



Rusty Shackleford said...

Our Prussian inspired school system is death to smart, introverted boys. This is nothing new. Dropout/Nobel Prize winner Herman Hesse wrote a novel about it more than 100 years ago. If I could live my life over the big change I'd make would be to drop out of school after the 5th grade. The schools are not about education after that point. They are about indoctrinating and acculturating children to believe the right things and to behave in ways that are useful to the government and corporations. In equal measure they are about permanently stigmatizing those who can't be socialized. To me school was like prison. After being herded like cattle all day and forced to spend time with loud, dumb, obnoxious brats that I'd never voluntarily associate with, I was only too happy get lost in my Tolkien books or nintendo games.

Porn is another thing altogether, though, and I don't understand how they're being conflated with video games here. It was a huge deal to see a playboy when I was a kid. I found a hustler magazine when I was 10 years old in the bathroom at a gas station, and I remember being completely disgusted. Hustler is probably like a joke now to kids that age. These kids have instant access to industrial grade porn involving things that I couldn't have imagined when I was already an adult. Who knows how that's going to work out, but my guess would be probably not so great.

Unknown said...

For all I learned I could have dropped out of school after the first grade. At the most, fourth grade.

MGTOW'd Out said...

“Whats actually happened is that young men have been pushed out of the old male role without being given another role to replace it.”


Young men still have their role. There is no “pushing out” of anything. They have the liberty to pursue whatever endeavor they desire and, with the help of “Game”, tame women. Guys, learn game and you will have everything you want.


“Meanwhile young women are being forced into the old male role and away from the female role.”



Young women still have their role. They are not being “forced” into anything. They have the liberty to pursue whatever endeavor they desire, compliments of our captains of industry, and, when “seduced” by Game, they will be “tame”. Ladies, you will be gamed sooner or later.


“Nature itself will take care of egalitarianism.”


Actually, nature BORE egalitarianism. Good luck reversing this course of progress!


"They are about indoctrinating and acculturating children to believe the right things and to behave in ways that are useful to the government and corporations."

So is religion, da Joos, the manosphere, this blog, etc. EVERY organization and EVERY group promotes a particular brand of ideology. Brainwashing is a human phenomenon.

Anonymous said...

"...learn game and you will have everything you want."

At most, you will have the trappings of you what you wanted.

Black Poison Soul said...

@Glen Filthie and @The Obvious, you reminded me of an old short story. Here it is if you want to read it: The Primary Education of the Camiroi - R. A. Lafferty

The very last part of the book was three recommendations:

A. Kidnapping five Camiroi at random and constituting them a pilot Earth PTA.

B. A little constructive book-burning, particularly in the education field.

C. Judicious hanging of certain malingering students.

Unknown said...

"There is no “pushing out” of anything"

I know half a dozen men, personally, who were not hired or bypassed for promotion because of Affirmative Action, which means "white men need not apply."

Unknown said...

By the way, I've always enjoyed the exceptionally eccentric R.A. Lafferty.

MGTOW'd Out said...

“I know half a dozen men, personally, who were not hired or bypassed for promotion because of Affirmative Action, which means "white men need not apply.”

Since we are offering anecdotes, I know dozens of men who have been hired or promoted over females and minorities.

Unknown said...

No, you don't.

MGTOW'd Out said...

Actually, I do.

Unknown said...

Considering the fact you're almost always wrong....no, you don't.