wahbegan

The argument, however niche (it’s very niche) appearing for the first time in human history that people can and should be attracted to one another regardless of biological sex is a direct result of kids forming friendships, relationships, and entire communities and social circles with people they’ve never met online, resulting in a whole group of kids who think of people as disembodied concepts and selfies and personal posts. In this essay, I will-

bodenor

OP please keep writing

wahbegan

Okay, uhh…uhh…hmmm, outline, outline, outline…

The rise of internet activism/”slacktivism”

The demographic of tumblr being largely the socially outcast and/or maladjusted and younger people/teenagers the effect this has on their irl sexual activity or lack thereof, and confusing, fluid sexual desires

The normalization via various hook-up, dating, camming, etc. sites of becoming attracted to people via the internet INHERENT DIFFERENCES IN FINDING SOMEONE ATTRACTIVE ONLINE AND ACTUALLY MEETING THEM

Sex in theory vs. sexual reality

How many young people don’t understand that how someone presents online is often not an accurate portrayal, physically or emotionally, of who they are

“Trans women are women/Trans men are men”: a brief history of how attempts to ease dysphoria have turned over time into making it deliberately difficult to separate trans people from the gender they identify as

The unfortunate implications this has on consent

Tying it all together: Confused young people, who are often isolated from their peers and trying on genders and sexualities like new styles as they grapple with their identity and puberty, are finding themselves attracted to carefully created and maintained online personas. These kids then, with the best of intentions, read about the struggle for trans acceptance and, failing to understand the multi-faceted nuances of real physical sex with someone, create rhetoric based around the validation of someone’s gender identity through sexual contact without understanding the gravity of what they’re suggesting

8bitlora

You’re missing a step: - Transactivists who definitely do understand the gravity of what they’re suggesting jump on the wagon

pervert420

also, teens/young adults not finding a distinction between finding someone likeable platonically (or ‘aesthetically’) and liking someone sexually/romantically.

ophelias-revenge

Yall are on a roll here

st-mchn

This is fascinating and excellently reasoned stuff. And now I’m intrigued about the possibility of like.. crowdsourcing the writing of an essay? bc everyone here is so fuckin smart coming out with good quality observations lightning fast I wanna see what all these replies would look like as one cohesive piece of writing

gcdk

Can I add porn? Young people’s formative sexual experiences are manual hyperstimulation to hardcore porn, sometimes itself very niche.

Literally orgasming on cue to very specific stimulus either after hours of edging or a few short minutes of viewing and wanking.

Neither physically equates to having sex with another person, there is zero concept of pleasing the other person, especially for boys. Girls are taught to withstand pain and discomfort and to look aesthetically pleasing (however a girl masturbating to violent porn isn’t feeling physical pain). There’s a physical disconnect - this is visual input, manual output, orgasm. Boom.

Now add in the dimension of cartoon porn or furry porn. It’s even further removed from real life.

The experience is visual > masturbation > orgasm and when the visual input can be anything from a dog suit to tentacle porn the concept of having an actual sexual orientation that means you are attracted to and can fall in love with people of the same sex or opposite sex seems a million miles away. Actual sex, when it happens, can be used to live out visual fantasies thought up by a pornographer, or to tick things off a list.

Other people being disembodied concepts remains a problem outside of sex, as niche interests and 24/7 internet access mean never having to have a boring conversation with someone who isn’t into what you’re into. Empathy drops when you never encounter anyone different to you.

When empathy drops and young people compartmentalise themselves, making their entire raison d'etre about some fandom or some game, they are themselves isolated and vulnerable. Predators who know which buttons to push can easily take advantage of isolated, lonely, touch starved young people who can’t interact with others and feel that nobody understands them. Also add in that most young people will have viewed porn since childhood, meaning that their boundaries are not firmly set and they might already be traumatised by what they’ve seen.

Who lurks online? Well, all of us, but in terms of predator we know the paedophile lives on the internet. We know that there is a link between autogynephiles and IT jobs. We know men who spend a lot of time online spend a lot of that time on porn.

Who builds the communities and social circles online? Who creates the opportunity for traumatised young people to interact with predators, who ensures the culture online is that of total sexual acceptance of everything? Who encourages children and young people to post nudes? Who hacks or releases homemade sex tapes to the world?

Who grooms children online and then meets them in real life?

Basically, who benefits from young people being this fucked up?

Source: wahbegan