Cyber Sex and Addiction

      Today 70% of all pornography viewing is done during the workday hours of 9am to 5pm.  The boss or co-worker sitting in his or her cubicle could be viewing sizzling images instead of company invoices or emails.  It is often very difficult to police or monitor such individuals as the typical cyber-sex addict usually becomes secretive and introverted. Therapists who specialize in treating such addictions state that normal self-control is not always strong enough to hold back the tides of compulsion. The reason?  Convenience and privacy--unlike other forms of sexual behavior which often have immediate and dire consequences and messy break-ups, the illusion of sex online seems safe--in the beginning.

     A woman who calls herself Nicole in Calgary, Canada, became so addicted to  sex chat rooms, she ultimately took an overdose of pills with alcohol while online.  Web cam on, her community of cyber-sex buddies watched in horror as Nicole attempted suicide in full view of them. Someone  emailed the local police, which saved her life. The pull of the sex chat rooms was so strong, Nicole stated that she had nowhere else to go, and wanted to die there.

     Science Fiction Writer Issac Asimov, author of the famed Foundation Trilogy, wrote of a world called Solaria, in which actual physical contact was abhorrant. In this planet of the future, denizens meet via a holographic apparatus in a process called "viewing."  All meeting is done through generated images. Even babies are reproduced without sexual contact, and only to replace someone who has died. Human contact is intolerable and awkard, and a form of psychic channeling is used for communication. Written fifty years ago, one might ask, how did Asimov know that someday soon millions of  human beings would prefer cyber-contact to the real thing?