Internet Pornography Cannot Be Considered as a Leisure - Term Paper Example

Institution : xxxxxxxxxxx Title : xxxxxxxxxxx Tutor : xxxxxxxxxxx Course : xxxxxxxxxxx @2012 “Internet pornography cannot be considered as leisure” Discuss this statement. Introduction The internet has greatly transformed how people spend their free time. The existence of varied leisure time activities in the internet has kept many people occupied when they are away from their compulsory activities. One contentious leisure activity in the internet in the modern society is internet pornography. Internet pornography is the viewing of sexually explicitly obscene materials that is accessible online through a variety of formats such as video films, streaming videos and video games (Attwood, 2010). On the other hand, leisure can basically be defined as a reasonably self-determined activity that falls into an individual’s economically free or unoccupied time, and which offers opportunities for individual growth and recreation. Alternatively, leisure activities refer to the activities carried out by individuals during their free time from work (or other duties).The big question however is whether internet pornography can be categorized or considered as a leisure activity or not. This particular paper therefore intends to critically discuss the statement, “Internet pornography cannot be considered as leisure” It can be argued that internet pornography can be considered as leisure. According to the World Leisure organization (2008), one of the core characteristics of leisure is satisfaction. When people engage in various leisure activities during their free time, they develop a sense of intrinsic value, when they do what they want do. Consequently, the experience from that particular activity can lead to intrinsic motivation which further results to satisfaction. Internet pornography has the capability of bringing about satisfaction in the form of sexual satisfaction. Best (2009) highlights that the manner in which individuals who engage in internet use pornography is largely grounded on gratification which is basically sexual satisfaction. For instance a study conducted by Štulhofer, et al (2010) to examine Pornography and satisfaction among young men revealed that , young men who expose themselves to explicit pornographic material on the internet during their free time, attain sexual satisfaction even without the actual physical engagement in sexual activity. Furthermore, in an interview with internet pornographic offenders, one offender confessed that, “When I began watching pornographic materials online, I wanted to try it; I felt it and I got some satisfaction from it” (Howitt & Sheldon, 2007). Therefore based on the satisfaction as a core characteristic of leisure and internet pornography as a form of leisure that can bring about satisfaction, one can argue that internet pornography can be considered as leisure. Internet pornography can also be considered as a form of leisure. As Blackshaw & Crawford (2009) argues, the acknowledgement of the present post-modern society makes it necessary that scholars take into account the fact that conservative ethical codes have changed, and that values in various forms of leisure can be appreciated. According to Reible (2011) various forms of the so-called deviant leisure activities such as internet pornography have the qualities of serious leisure, as they have the potential to offer an enjoyable leisure experience in addition to the potential to create social capital. Moreover, Reible (2011) suggests that more research is required to offer a voice to individuals who take part in the deviant leisure such as internet pornography. This will prove as an initial step towards exploring the potential as well as the value found in these transgressive leisure activities, especially the culture of deviant leisure. Reible (2011) contends that enlightening assumptions and challenging traditions ought to be seen as a necessary undertaking in as far as ensuring the continuation of acceptability and relevance within the leisure discipline is concerned. Reible (2011) highlights that the experience of any form of significant leisure comes in all types and can be appreciated only when as scholars they ignored the authoritative doxa that limits people’s ability to look at in the first place. Additionally, internet pornography can be described as leisure based on the fact that it has become a free time activity for many people in the modern society. As defined earlier, leisure is invariably associated with what people do during their free time and/or used to describe the opportunities presented by free time. Miller (2010) highlights that the viewing of sexually explicitly obscene materials from the internet in whatever form one chooses, is more evident these days. Blackshaw & Crawford (2009) argues that the use of pornographic content is not only more widespread nowadays than people imagine but it is also used by both men and women (both gay and straight). According to a study by Kahrel (2010), 12% of all Web sites display pornographic content; in addition 25% of all the search engine requests are often pornographic. The study also revealed that 35% of all the internet downloads are often pornographic with approximately 28,258 internet consumers watching pornographic contents every second. Furthermore, approximately $89.00 is being spent on internet pornography everyday, with 266 new pornographic sites created each day. In this case, what is evident from such findings is that participating in pornographic online activities is indeed a leisure activity for many people in the contemporary society. On the other hand, internet pornography cannot be considered as leisure. According to Reible (2011), any form of leisure ought to be viewed with reference to an upright construction of goodness. Therefore, any obscure form of leisure that can be deemed as “deviant” should not be considered as leisure. Blackshaw (2010) further argues that a “normal” leisure is known to be beneficial or advantageous to humanity, essential to humanity’s wellbeing as well as a means of providing the humanity with an opportunity to find truth, beauty, freedom and embedded with a meaning. This implies that a leisure activity should be concerned with strengthening social order and enhancing social conditions. According Shaw (2010), for instance, the findings of a study of 32 different groups of women carried out to determine the impact of internet consumption on the lives of women, with a focus on their personal experiences, perceptions and meanings of pornography, the reaction of women towards pornography were consistently negative. Internet pornography stimulated fear reactions, had detrimental effect on the identities of women and their relations with men, and was viewed to encourage sexist attitudes among men. Despite this, Shaw (2010) argues that a large number of women felt that their views were often met with resistance and silence. According to Reible (2011), internet pornography, in this context, can be viewed as a deviant activity that is questionable. Thus, individuals who are involved in this activity decide to step outside what is known as the prescribed norms of sexual behaviour. The choice to take part in this deviant leisure means that an individual devalues the pressures of the typical society and the construct of marginalization in favour of inner meaning and self-meaning. Kaplan (1975) defines leisure as providing opportunities for individual growth as well as having positive expectations. However, this is not true of internet pornography, and thus, it cannot be considered as leisure. One of the reasons behind this argument is based on the fact that those involved in this particular activity develops an addictive behaviour that becomes negatively dominant in their lives. This dominates their behaviours, thoughts and feeling (Howitt & Sheldon, 2007). Howitt & Sheldon (2007) highlights that despite the cumulative serious undesirable consequences; offenders continue involving themselves in internet pornography. They also appear to be incapable of responding to the extreme nature of their use of pornography. In some instances, Howitt & Sheldon (2007) argues that the process of finding, downloading as well as masturbating to the pornographic pictures is all-engrossing that other activities such as maintain social relationships are ignored to the point of becoming problematic. Howitt & Sheldon (2007) argues that the offending behaviour absorbs their lives; a factor that sometimes brings them into conflicts with other members of the families and social networks simply due to the fact that most of their time is spent on the computer and the internet. When they are obstructed from using the internet, they experience unpleasant feelings or annoyances. According to Sage Publications (2009), a leisure activity is also described as being psychologically pleasurable in terms of expectation and recollection. However, according to Antonakos (2009), this is not the case with internet pornography; as a result, it should not be considered as a leisure activity. Internet pornography has been argued to be a destructive type of activity that is both morally and psychologically harmful. Psychologically, it is known to cause mental unbalance which may lead to a criminal sex life for the offender. When internet pornography is perceived morally, Antonakos (2009) argues that internet pornography interferes with the proper sex life that an individual can only have with his/her marriage partner. Internet pornography can thus not be considered as leisure. Consequently, Antonakos (2009) recommends that children ought to be introduced to significant group of leisure activities such as chess, billiards, checkers, Ping-Pong and cards at an early age. These, Antonakos (2009) argues put two or more individuals in competition, and are not just psychologically pleasurable in terms of expectation and recollection (entertaining) but they also teach fair play and honesty. Blackshaw & Crawford (2009) asserts that Internet pornography cannot be considered as leisure. Blackshaw & Crawford (2009) argues that a number of postmodernism advocates have argued that the various forms of the so-called deviant leisure activities such as internet pornography have the qualities of serious leisure, as they have the potential to offer an enjoyable leisure experience as well as the potential to create social capital. Blackshaw & Crawford (2009) however argues that this postmodern outlook of internet pornography as leisure is a nihilistic fantasy that ought to be shrugged off. Blackshaw & Crawford (2009) argues that postmodernism is nothing less than the dominant celebration of relativism that assumes that the reality is not absolute but dependent on certain individuals, cultures or cognitive systems.Therefore,morally speaking, there is no right or wrong with relativism and anybody is logically free to undertake any kind of activity should they wish so. In short, nobody has the right to reprove the other for enjoying their leisure in one way or the other, because no leisure is better than the kind of leisure. The postmodernism advocates’ argument for this has been that the conventional ethical codes have changed, and that values in various forms of leisure are now acknowledged. However, Blackshaw & Crawford (2009) refutes this claim that those postmodernism advocates have been known to have the tendency to reduce everything to self-conscious cleverness and irony. As a result, their argument that deviant leisure activities such as internet pornography have the qualities of serious leisure is not right. According to Blackshaw & Crawford (2009), it has often been argued that they argue the globe only in aesthetic terms and do not always agree with its deeper material content. Additional, post-modernism adherents have also been accused of being coldly crafty at respinning abstract philosophical ideas instead of embodying its analysis in real human being lives. In this case, the opinions of the postmodernism advocates cannot be used to argue internet pornography as leisure. Conclusion With the increasing potential to disseminate pornographic contents, the internet has, without a doubt, turned out to be an astounding purveyor of what many argue as indecent images and messages. As a consequence, one of the most contentious leisure activities in the internet in modern society as analyzed in the paper is internet pornography. Whether internet pornography should be considered as leisure or not seems to be a difficult question. However, in my own viewpoint, and based on the analysis above, internet pornography ought not to be described as leisure. Leisure as highlighted above entails activities that provide opportunities for individual growth, positive expectations, being of sociable quality and psychologically pleasurable in terms of expectation and recollection. This is, however, not exactly true for Internet pornography, since the free access of pornography via the internet generally debases the Web in addition to dehumanizing emotions. In this process, the viewer turns out to be a curious observer as well as a participant in actively degrading humans, especially through the commodification of women. References Attwood, F, 2010, Porn.com: Making Sense of Online Pornography, Peter Lang Publishers. Antonakos, J, 2009, Life's Objective, AuthorHouse. Best, S, 2009, Leisure Studies: Themes and Perspective, Sage. Blackshaw, T & Crawford, G, 2009, The SAGE Dictionary of Leisure Studies, Sage Publishers. Blackshaw, T, 2010, Leisure: Key Ideas, Taylor & Francis Howitt, D & Sheldon, K, 2007, Sex Offenders and the Internet John Wiley and Sons, Kahrel, M, 2010, Book Review: “PORN.COM: Making Sense of Online Pornography” – by Feona Attwood, Retrieved on the 7th November, 2012 from Miller, C, 2010, The theory and the Reality of Porn don’t always Match Reible, H.L, 2011, Deviant Leisure: Uncovering the ‘Goods’ in Transgressive Behavior, University of Illinois Štulhofer, A, Buško, V and Landripet, I, 2010, Pornography, Sexual Socialization, and Satisfaction among Young Men. 39(1), Journal of Behaviour Science. Sage Publications, 2009, What is the Leisure Experience? Retrieved on the 7th November, 2012 from Shaw, S.M, 2010, Men’s leisure and women's lives: the impact of pornography on women, 18(3), Routledge Taylor and Francis Group. World Leisure organization, 2008. Read More