Fake Love, Fake War: The Purpose of Pornography and Video Games

When I meet with students and young adult males, one of the things that I notice is an extremely short attention span. Among guys, many have a difficult time maintaining sustained thought which is why they so often look bored (or asleep) when forced to listen to a lecture or read a book. But something amazing happens whenever you mention the topic of video games to the bored and apathetic teenage guy. They often perk up and start talking about their favorite game and their high score or the epic battles they fight on their game of choice. When you ask a group of middle school boys who wants to go camping or hiking or do something adventurous and you get little to no response because they would rather sit at home in an alternate universe to play pretend, something has gone drastically wrong.

Simultaneously, if the statistics are correct, the overwhelming majority of teenage boys are regularly looking at pornographic images. With no moral compass from our culture or the home, a lack of accountability and discernment from parents, technology that enables us to have the world (even the profane part of it) at our fingertips, and natural sexual desires, the perfect storm has been created to produce addiction to internet pornography. When young men think of sex as a conquest disconnected from a covenant relationship and treat women as soulless bodies made for their sexual gratification, something has gone drastically wrong.

Pornography and video games are sadly the air young men breathe. And what we must see as we speak into these young men’s lives in our homes, our churches, and our communities is that the desires they have are totally natural and good, but they are fulfilling them in ways that will not satisfy. In this article by Russell Moore, he explains what is going on in the hearts and minds of those addicted to these things and how there is a true love and a true war worth fighting for. Check it out at:http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/fake-love-fake-war-why-so-many-men-are-addicted-to-internet-porn-and-video-games.