It’s no secret that a lot of people indulge in adult content. When you’re in the mood, all you have to do is type something into the search bar, and there are instantly millions of videos available to watch.
Of course, a lot of the people who do this are singletons who don’t have anyone else around to give them pleasure. That doesn’t mean they’re the only ones who watch this stuff, though. Plenty of couples are just as interested in pornography, whether they watch it together or separately. What sort of impact does that have on their relationship, though?
On the one hand, watching this content might be viewed as a stand-in for physical and emotional attachment to a person’s other half. However, it can also be considered inspirational; a way to spice up things in the bedroom. Which side outweighs the other is what this article plans on investigating.
Men in Relationships Watch More Adult Content Alone
To understand how people engage with adult content, you have to ask them. That’s precisely what one study did recently, with over 1,200 individuals surveyed repeatedly over the course of two years.
The questions were primarily focused on whether participants indulged in pornography and if they did so alone or with their other half. As for the results, roughly half of people claimed not to look at anything adult, whether by themselves or with their partner. What’s more, there was little change in habits over the two years, so those who didn’t watch pornography at the start mostly continued that trend throughout the study.
However, the proportion of men in relationships who enjoyed adult content alone was significantly higher than it was with women. Their desire to do this by themselves seemed to impact their commitment to their partner, whereas it appeared to have the opposite effect on female participants. Many of the women who watched this content alone noted an increase in intimacy and commitment, which was also reflected in those who engaged in pornography together.
A Lack of Correlation between Pornography and Relationship Satisfaction
Obviously, this one study alone doesn’t define how adult content influences relationships. Aside from the fact that the participants were all American and primarily white, the survey was only conducted five times across two years.
A separate study by Vaillancourt-Morel et al. had different findings to this research, with interest in pornography showing no correlation to relationship satisfaction. 200 couples comprising both mixed and same genders were questioned every day about sexual desire and activity, adult content consumption, and relationship satisfaction, for 35 days.
By the end of that period, the only significant finding was that interest in pornography seemed to diminish the day after sexual activity. What’s more, men in heterosexual relationships were less likely to be physically intimate after watching adult content than those in homosexual relationships. However, this doesn’t necessarily signify a correlation between pornography and relationship satisfaction, as men may have done the former because sex wasn’t on the table that day.
Camming Can Help People Foster Emotional Connections
It’s easy to view adult content as an unrealistic portrayal of sex that can ruin the way a person views love and relationships. However, that’s not always the case, especially with how the industry is changing.
While pre-recorded movies by adult content studios may lean towards this, there are plenty of avenues that provide viewers something far more genuine. Just look at camming.
On the surface, it might seem like a person may be drawn to somewhere like Babestation because of all the beautiful women available to watch on free sex cams. However, these platforms are actually ideal for fostering emotional connections between viewer and performer. The experience in a sex cam show is supposed to be all about giving the person paying what they want, and in a lot of cases, that means providing a space for them to express themselves. The freedom that people have when engaging in live cam sex can actually help them to open up and get more out of the show than purely sexual release.
Understandably, this can potentially cause more problems for those in relationships than if they simply watched adult content. However, for singletons out there, as well as those searching for another emotional connection, this can be a really great output.
Some Consider Pornography An Act Of Micro-Cheating
There are so many factors that influence why a couple does or doesn’t engage in sexual activity, whether both parties are satisfied with the relationship, etc. As a result of this, it’s hard for any study to make definitive claims about the impact of adult content without taking all this into account.
However, that doesn’t mean that engaging in pornography doesn’t negatively impact a relationship in some cases, particularly in the modern-day. For some people, such behaviour can be viewed as micro-cheating, which could result in a couple parting ways.
Obviously, this is something that differs on a case-by-case basis. While one person might not consider their partner watching adult content to be an issue, another might find it damaging to their self-esteem.
This is why communication is so essential. Just because someone watches pornography, it doesn’t mean they’re unsatisfied in their relationship, think their partner isn’t attractive enough, are bored by their sex life, or anything like that. They may just get a different pleasure out of it.
The truth of the matter is that there’s no way to define how adult content influences relationships. Why? For the simple point that relationships are incredibly complex connections between two people. The impact that something has on one couple doesn’t necessarily translate to another. While it’s clear that many people share certain views about pornography, that doesn’t necessarily mean anything. A relationship is just as capable of thriving when one party watches adult content as it is of breaking apart. It all comes down to intention and whether or not there’s good enough communication between both sides.
Article Submitted By Community Writer
