Zeeshan Rasool Khan
A Cabinet Minister in recent past highlighted a report that about 90% of Pakistani youth have unbecoming propensity towards pornography. This is in fact not for the first time but this news is continuously making rounds for couple of years. Moreover, this is not the case with Pakistani youth only but also with the younger generations worldwide. And this unsavory practice has become par for the course in our state as well. No person in the world could so far prove even a single advantage of porn watching.
Even European psychologists are repeatedly cautioning people about it despite the sexual freedom prevailing there. According to psychologists, a person is attracted to porn for multiple reasons, which are – arousal, combat loneliness, education, boredom etc. However, it is irrefutable fact that porn is not favorable in any case. Consider first reason, watching immoral and reading stuff may fetch pleasure to consumer for a while, but it ruins sexual-life at the end. It can result into erectile dysfunction in males and impotence, desensitization, Anorgasmia etc in females.
Psychologist Dr Gary Brooks rejects the notion that exposure to vulgarity can terminate loneliness. He writes’ the more one uses pornography, the more lonely one becomes. We can find many confessions where consumers confess how porn watching destroyed their relationship. Research also vindicates this opinion and shows pornography consumption is linked to less stability in relationships, increased risk of infidelity and rise in cases of divorce thus giving rise to loneliness. Some may consider pornography as a mode to get knowledge about reproductive mechanism. However, it can never prove to be the educator, for it is unrealistic, improper and full of immodesty. In addition, expecting ‘education’ through immoral means is sheer non-sense. In other words it is ‘insult’ to education.
Likewise, any activity that could be hazardous to us cannot be solution of our problems including boredom. No mentally and health conscious person would like to do away with lesser problem with bigger. Because studies reveal watching unwholesome movies, reading unwholesome books impinges on physical, mental, and sexual health of a person. The research has shown porn consumption is an escalating behaviour. It is addictive in nature. Once a person starts watching porn, he or she becomes addictive to it just like drugs, smoking etc. There are clear evidences that frequent watching and reading of salacious material causes brain to undergo unfavourable and lasting changes. Studies reveal that those who consume pornography more frequently have brains less connected, indolent and even smaller in areas. And this is undeniable reality that porn consumption is contributing to sharp rise in social evils like rape, sex trafficking, violence, prostitution, etc. Thus, by no means this exercise is productive.
Now the question arises how to get rid of this obnoxious habit? What we do is outcome of our thought process. Most often we do our mind is inclined to and similarly, turning to porn is the result of our thoughts. More we think about lewd things more we would cling to pornography. So, the problem as well as its solution lies in our mind. If we get shut of bad ideas, we can no longer be sufferers. However, it is not easy to control brain and stop negative thoughts but diverting the brain is not difficult either.
All of us have capacity to divert brain hence we can replace negative thoughts with positive ones at ease. Rather than adhering and following negative, needless, and unpleasant thoughts, we can engage ourselves with productive activities. Our life has sexual aspect but it is not entirety. It is part of life but not life, therefore attaching significance to it while neglecting other important facets of life is madness. The time we spend in thinking about it can be put into better use. I believe if we make a list of our worthwhile ‘priorities in life’ and would work upon them devotionally, we would not get time for pointless things.
Moreover, rather than wasting time in malefic exercise we can make better use of it. We can spend our leisure time with parents and other family members, in doing physical exercise, in reading books etc. – the activities that carry no drawback. Additionally, the internet, which is the source of porn, is also a treasure of knowledge. On a click, you can have access to the global information. This is perhaps for the first time in the human history that we can get around the world while sitting in our home. Therefore, instead of drawing benefit from it, using it as tool of destruction is not saneness. The person involved in this mischievous habit must think at least once that what he/she is doing. How could it serve him/her? What could be resultant of this job in which he/she wastes money, energy and more importantly, time which when lost does not return. Once a person starts thinking logically, he/she would no longer stick to these practices and would definitely go to great lengths to desist from actus reuses. But, what requires is ratiocination.
—The writer is freelance columnist, based in Islamabad
