FOR many people, a peek at an "adult" site offers merely a titillating glimpse into an illicit world.
For others, a peek becomes a moment of respite, a brief vacation from the demands of the real world. Then it becomes a habit. Soon, it is a compulsion that occupies hours and hours every day, shattering careers, marriages and lives.
The addictive nature of cruising the Internet and the obsessive allure of pornography combine to take over their existence. And although many who become addicted have had a history of acting out sexually with prostitutes, phone sex or pornographic magazines and movies, others are pulled in from outside such an orbit.
The Internet, more than any other type of mass medium, seems to be creating a new group of people engaged in compulsive sexual behavior, say psychologists and clinicians. The accessibility, anonymity and affordability — what one researcher calls the "triple A engine" — are reeling in people who would otherwise have never engaged in such behavior.
http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-he-internetsex26dec26,0,6105518.story?coll=la-home-healthHmmmm ... I guess I'm not the typical male (or even the typical gay male), because pornography evokes two responses in me. It either grosses me out or bores me.
But I think there are plenty of us who are addicted to other features of the internet like posting to message boards (even DU!) or chatting on line. I'm not sure if these kinds of behaviors affect us like the "sexual addiction" described in the article, though.