Why Porn Can't Cure Boredom

And how it can be a vicious cycle for the boredom-prone.

• Seeking control or novelty in porn is only a temporary solution to boredom.
• Boredom-prone people engage with porn to avoid other negative emotions.
• Consuming porn represents a passive form of engagement that fails to satisfy the need for agency.

In a short story written in 1989, Umberto Eco outlined just how to recognize whether or not the movie you are watching is pornographic: "If to go from A to B, the characters take longer than you would like, then the film you are seeing is pornographic." [i]

Clearly, he is highlighting the lack of plot-driven action in a typical pornographic movie. And it’s true that we find things that drag on to be boring. But there may well be more important reasons that pornography can—despite its obvious function to titillate—be boring. Or at the very least, a poor solution to feelings of boredom.

Why Porn Can't Cure Boredom

References

[i] From How to recognize a porn movie. (p. 207) Published in How to travel with a salmon and other essays. Vintage, London, 1998.