TGP, thumbnails and the novelty quest

Dr. Judith Reisman recently wrote a refreshingly frank article titled 'The Impotence Pandemic'. She discusses the conditioning of men and boys by the porn industry, effectively numbing their normal sexual responses and rendering them incapable of enjoying loving relationships. You can read the whole article here.

One of the points that really caught my interest originates from a quote from neurobiologist Peter Milner:

Says Milner, “[m]ost stimuli become less attractive … as they become familiar and predictable. … Thus, novelty has an effect similar to that of reward." (Emphasis added.) By definition, when the libido depends on novel pictures, such men are dependent,they are “without power,” emasculated, their libido, their masculine power and authority hijacked by a steady stream of new paper dolls.

As porn addicts become desensitized to visual imagery and stimulation, their craving for novelty intensifies. The online porn industry is increasingly adept at exploiting this process of addiction. One example that recovering addicts often quote to me is thumbnail or TGP ('thumbnail gallery post') sites. These are the popular free sites which fill the screen with a variety of pornographic thumbnail images, usually updated on a daily basis so the visitor can never reach the end of their offerings. Literally thousands of thumbnail sites exist, generating commission revenue as each thumbnail image links to a commercial porn site.

For many compulsive porn users, clicking around these sites can make up a large part of their surfing activity - and we're talking hours of invested time every day. Now that's a problem in itself, but here's a further rub. Addicts increasingly find that the tantalising thumbnail glimpse is vastly more appealing than the content that it links to. They follow the links to the commercial sites, but it's the thumbnail page that they keep returning to for more, and more, and more.

The fact that thumbnail sites are free explains part of the attraction, but the main allure is novelty. That is how these pages thrive. The addict visitor is hooked on a novelty quest; thumbnail images draw them in, always offering the promise of something or someone new to get off on. Hundreds of images can flash through the addict's consciousness in a single sitting, catering for an endless spectrum of fetish and delusion. The impact for reinforcing pornography addiction goes without saying, along with the frustration and depression that results.

So where can we go from here? How do you free yourself from this endless craving for erotic novelty? In answering, we can return to Dr. Reisman's article, and the survey findings of public policy analyst Shaunti Feldhahn:

men she surveyed largely sought not “unlimited sex," but "a feeling of wanting to be wanted."

Part of an addiction recovery plan requires some emotional detective work; tracing back through your behaviours and urges to discover exactly what gratification you are seeking from porn, and especially why. This enables long-term release from the novelty quest, and eventually, you'll feel kind of embarrassed that you spent so much time on it. That's certainly ok with me though. :)