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Comment by mindstab | Hacker News Reader

Unbelievable alarmist crap we've been hearing forever. Is it even newsworthy that CNN is pedaling this junk? Also kind of sexist. Girls can play video games and watch porn too. Why are "guys" so special and only their demise news worthy? This article could just as easily read "The demise of people".

Replace "Video games and porn" with X where X has been: Rap, D&D, Rock and roll, premarital sex, alcohol, drink fountains, teenage necking (kissing), dancing etc

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Agree that the article is crap but at least regarding the internet porn part, it has all the requirements to become destructively addictive. And all stats show that men watch most porn so it's not unjustified sexism.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSF82AwSDiU

Beer, cigarettes, and gambling have all the requirements to be destructively addictive. Yet while I've known alcoholics, a couple of smoking-related deaths, and one or two people who have hurt themselves financially by gambling, the generations they are sampled from have lived longer and one the whole more comfortably than the generations before them.

These are all regulated and continuously up for debate, because, in the end, all addictions become a social/economical problem. Plus beer, cigarettes or gambling certainly did not contribute to prolonging their lives. Porn is not regulated in the west. I m not saying it should, but let's keep a watchful eye.

Neither of those things are only one click away when you are at your computer trying to get work done. Being able to resist the temptation to buy beer or cigarettes when you are in a store is easier than resisting the constant temptations of the internet.

And you could claim girls read more erotica and romance and watch more Disney, which one could also say skew social perspectives :P

Destroying a generation though?

i doubt one of these takes up similar percentages of their time. Now, shopping is addictive, but good luck regulating that.

This is just as bad:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870440900457614...

Bringing this one up because it's also talking about some of the same distractions (video gaming, porn) and was sadly lauded by a lot of women I know on Facebook.

Also for reference, it's not like this "narative" is remotely new. It was one of the central plot points of 1999's Fight Club. And it wasn't new or revolutionary then either.

Not really sexist - a few counterexamples doesn't oppose a general trend. The majority of players in violent video games are males, and by far the majority of porn viewers is male. The latter is probably because males are much more likely to pay for porn (there aren't too many strip clubs for women, for example), and most content gets made to suit those paying.

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