I remember when the internet first came available through free means like that of Juno or NetZero. AOL was out and available for a monthly fee; however, you could always find a CD with so many hours available for free. So, what many people would do is move from free CD to free CD canceling just before the time was up. Juno’s deal was that you had only so many minutes free a month, and then you could not log on again until the next month unless you upgraded to a paid account, I think Juno Gold.
Even then, pornography was available and it was blatantly free. While there were some paid websites, there was a plethora of free websites with no reason ever to pay. So when I first began to explore internet, I really thought the internet was primarily for the pornographic industry, chat rooms from yahoo (that you always seemed to get kicked out of), and AOL or ICQ IM. Now, the social networking has grown exponentially into dozens of SN sites, IM places (even 3D IM-ing!), and virtual worlds!
Like Patrick Carnes said in his book about Online Pornography, the sound of logging on was a trigger of sorts. Almost immediately upon being connected I would go to any number of pornographic websites to get my fix. I say all this because more recently, I am learning more and more about the ability and the expanse of the internet dwelling less on the “dangerous sites.” While I am fully aware of the pornographic industry’s growth on the internet, it is becoming less attractive (well, most of the time).
I wonder, those of you who struggle with pornography, do you struggle immediately as I did? Do you struggle as your Internet Explore, Foxfire, Netscape, or Opera (or whatever internet browser you use) opens? Do thoughts immediately enter your head at that moment? Or is it your homepage with MSN, AOL, Dogpile, Google, MetaCrawler, WebCrawler, Excite, or Yahoo!? Each of these typical homepages have something potentially enticing whether it’s the entertainment news, featured articles, the popular searches list, the photo gallery, video box, or even a specific search ability. While one cannot escape this, especially if their job requires them to be on the internet periodically, a person suseptible to pornographic temptation must be careful which website he/she chooses as their homepage. Do you have any suggestions or anything to add?
