The Purity Project of OKC

Time spent with pornography can add up in a big way.

Internet pornography is a big time waster. Little bits of time here and there can add up considerably. Think about this: if a person averaged fifteen minutes a day viewing porn–

• In one week they would spend one hour and forty-five minutes a week of time.
• In one month they would spend seven and one half hours of time.
• In one year they would spend 90 hours of time–which is the equivalent of three full days–plus an additional eighteen hours. Another way of looking at this would is to note that this would be the equivalent of a little more than eleven working days of eight hours each.

Time spent in college

• This average college course is 3 units and meets for 3 hours each week for 15 weeks. Normally, it takes about 130 units of college credit to receive a bachelor’s degree.
• An average college class meets for 45 hours each semester.
• A typical Master’s degree is 36 hours beyond a bachelors.
• A typical Doctorate (Ph.D.) degree is 60 hours beyond the masters (of course, there is some variation).

In one year, a person who averaged only 15 minutes of viewing pornography each day will spend the equivalent amount of time required for two college level courses.

How much time is spent viewing porn anyway?

It is difficult to know how much time an average user spends viewing porn each day. There are several reasons for this. There is a social response bias built in to any survey where people are asked to admit they use porn and people are prone to underestimate the actual amount of time they spend on the computer–much less the amount of time spent at any particular website. And, people are prone to deny that they use work computers for anything other than business lest they face some sanction at work.

In October, 2003, Nielsen NetRatings surveys indicated that one in four internet users admitted to accessing an adult web site within the month, spending an average of 74 minutes on such sites, and these figures do not include time spent on “amateur” porn sites nor downloads from peer-to-peer services, such as Kazaa, on which 73% of all movie searches in a recent survey were for porno films. According to Ropelato (2006), 12% of all internet websites, 25% of all search engine requests, and 35% of all peer-to-peer downloads are pornographic (Todd Kendall, Clemson University).

According to a newly published poll by Harris Interactive Nearly a quarter of men view pornography in the workplace and will admit to spending 2.3 hours per week on non-work related websites. In comparison, women admit to surfing only 1.5 hours per week on non work-related sites. This does not mean that all time spent on non-work related sites is spent viewing porn, but we can say that some of that time is spent viewing porn.

According to Spector Computing, the average employee will surf one hour each day on none related work sites. It could be argued that these claims are biased since this company sells monitoring software; but, their claims appear consistent with other software monitoring companies as well.

People I Know

As a member of the Purity Project here in Oklahoma City, I have known many men who could easily claim to spend two or more hours each day on the internet looking for porn. Some even even spent well over three hours each day. Of course, we were hooked and qualify, by most any standards, as addicts. In my own case, I would estimate that the time I have spent would qualify me for close to two doctorate level degrees–just counting the classroom time.

What could we do with this time?

In the fifteen years I was hooked on porn, I think, given the amount of time that I needlessly wasted, I could have mastered any subject or accomplished an amazing number of important projects. I definitely could have read any number of edifying books, learned new skills, improved my relationships, been a better father and husband and served others instead of myself. This is time that can never be recovered. Is this happening to you?

It isn’t about the time, it’s about what happens to us during this time.

Spending this much time with pornography is a tragic waste of time on so many levels. But more than the tragedy of wasted days and years is what happens to people during the time they spend with pornography. This cancer of the mind moves them deeper into isolation, keeps them from solving important interpersonal problems, adds stress to relationships and can bring irreparable harm to marriages and families. At the same time places an incredible numbers of indecent images in the brain. Contrary to what many people would have you believe, exposure to this kind of material does have a negative impact upon your life. If spending time in a college classroom and earning a college degree is one of the most important things you can do with your life, then it would be fooling to argue that spending an equivalent amount of time viewing porn is not having a profound impact as well. Think about it.