We have all heard way too many times the phrase, “Back in my day we didn’t have…,” but we usually hear the rambling and complaining about iPods, cell phones, cars, and any other valuable commodity we possess in order to exist in today’s society. While thinking about what we have now that wasn’t as easy to get your hands on back in past generations is something that is always present in our minds at one time or another-sex. Pornography is a rapidly growing business that is easier to access than sending a text message. Depending on what kind of phone you have, you could be looking at porn from any place in the world while sending a text message to your girlfriend at the same time. Hell, even while eating at the Commons the other day some of my friends were pulling up porn images to try and see who could find the nastiest picture. Games are now developing by sending porn pictures across meetings to see the reaction people get once the receive it. You could be in a conference call in your office while working on T9 reports while at the same time have a porn site up two tabs over. Today’s idea of having everything at the snap of a finger or click of the mouse is quickly working its way down to the younger generation. The phrase, “Back in my day we didn’t have the ability to look at porn as easily as you kids can now,” isn’t as popular of a statement, even though it’s 100% true.
Here are some statistics for you: U.S. pornography revenue is $13.3 billion, there are 4.2 million porn websites (12% of the whole internet), 25% of total search requests per day are for porn, and nearly 43% of internet users view porn. So what does that say about our society, that we are a bunch of perverts? Not necessarily. Sex is a part of life. It is in your mind at all times, maybe not as prevalent as other thoughts, but it’s in there. So if the thought of sex is in our brains, a part of our subconscious seeps into our decision making which can cause the typing of “porn” onto Google and have access to 420 million porn pages. The possibilities are endless. In an age where being sexy is the only way to be famous or be accepted in society, more emphasis is being placed on sex in the media. Since there is no way to ignore the media, we are constantly bombarded with anything sexually related without a filter of any kind. Sex sells, it’s as simple as that. You can try to debate it all you want, but the girl that’s selling deodorant in a bikini is going to sell more than the guy with a receding hairline. And you know that there is probably a marketing guy out there who is thinking that would be a great porn sequence, the ideas will never cease to exist.
The evolution of sex is certainly obvious in younger generations. Who had a pregnant girl in their class when they were in seventh grade? Probably not too many people, now on the other hand, there are half a dozen girls pregnant before they even get to high school. It’s no coincidence that this is happening now. The music, movies, television shows, and magazines being produced in mass quantities is clearly having a trickle effect on the less mature minds of adolescents who don’t know the realities of life or realize how their actions can set themselves back numerous amounts of years and could in fact change their entire lives over one mistake. 90% of eight to sixteen year olds have been exposed to pornography. With that age range beginning at such a young age, there is a strong chance that addiction could settle in at an important time in their life. Puberty is a rough enough time as it is, if you throw in a porn addiction on top of that then you are asking for trouble. Your mind will tell you that it’s normal for you to pass a girl in the hallway and then proceed to have sex. Helping a girl pick up her books doesn’t mean she will give you a blowjob, well at least most of the time. In all seriousness, leaving adult and inappropriate images and themes in a mind that isn’t ready to cope with it can cause severe social awkwardness that can result in a miserable middle school experience and may very well lead into high school.
What shocks me is the fact that birth control is still failing to work. Back in past generations when it wasn’t really prevalent in society or thought of to be effective or useful, people still today refuse to wrap it up or pop a pill. It’s not like you don’t see the Trojan commercials, they’re out there. I just don’t see how teenage pregnancy or any unplanned pregnancy out of wedlock happens these days. With all of the marketing and new variations to catch the younger generation’s eyes, they still hear celebrities say that, “It feels better without a condom,” and girls will go without it because they are choosing to “rebel” against their parents, as if becoming pregnant will draw them closer together. What is the mental process?
“I want you.”
“Do you have protection?”
“Hell no.”
“Ok, let’s do it.”
To me, this whole conversation should have ended after the “hell no,” because obviously the guy sounds like a douche bag…plus he doesn’t have a condom. Is there a lack of gas stations or drug stores around where these teenagers live? Where I grew up there was a Walgreen’s and a Marathon down the street, I think the 2 minute drive is worth it. I really hate to sound so holier than thou right now, but enough is enough at some point. Things are definitely changing in our society, unfortunately not for the better.
Views of sex differ greatly among generations. Even people from the same generation have different ideas about sex. There are some people who grew up in the “Leave it to Beaver” home who think that’s how we all should live our lives. Others who grew up in that time may have loved to grow up this day in age where you can create a MySpace account and get laid within a few days. That would be a good social experiment, but would probably result in catching a couple of diseases along the way-not worth it. Take the movie “Pleasantville” as an example. To live in a black and white stereotypical world where everything that doesn’t fit the status quo is pushed underneath the carpet and never seen or thought of again. There is no excitement. Nothing ever goes against plan. But what happens once you put sex into everyone’s brains? Things change. Color starts to emerge from everywhere. People of all ages begin to have sex and act on their urges that they never would have acted on if they weren’t pushed to do so. Obviously we need sex to be able to reproduce and is a necessity of life and development, but there may be some other positives that I may not be able to fully see. I mean I’m not saying that premarital sex is a bad thing or anything like that. That’s definitely not what the point of this is trying to get across. But the promiscuity of today is certainly becoming raunchier as the days go on. Pretty soon I’m sure we will all just be naked. Ralph Lauren will just have a fit because nobody would be wearing clothes. If you think about it, we are pretty close to becoming that type of society already. Less is more, right? You have to show some to get some. Those types of lines certainly make guys sound like total assholes; we all aren’t like that…most of the time.
I doubt that this is the most risqué thing you have ever read, I mean if it is then I feel pretty accomplished, but we are pretty much used to this type of openness to sex in our society that we can just brush it off our shoulders. Good example is that I showed my parents my monologue for Creative Expression, which is an extremely raunchy and sexy monologue, and they were just totally shocked saying how things have changed since they’ve been in college. Duh, I mean it’s pretty obvious that our society is changing. Sex is changing. Porn is changing. Life is changing. We are changing. So, class orgy?
