Media encourages emotional pornography
Robby Asbery
Issue date: 2/17/10 Section: Forum
Emotional Pornography can be described as "any form of media which stimulates intimate or romantic ideas, emotions, and feelings in the observer such that romantic desire is duly gratified."
Within this description several things like soap operas, romance novels, hyperemotional reality shows, and even some dramatic romance movies fit nicely.
That is not to say that they are entirely explicit, but that the tug they impose on our hearts and emotions affects us in negative ways.
I hold a firm belief that media like this enjoys a terribly strong foothold in American society.
Let's break the concrete resistance to this idea with a study from 2007 by The Royal College of Psychiatrists which describes the effects of soap opera viewing on an emotionally impaired autistic child.
"The boy tended to drift towards dramatic sub-plots, perhaps reflecting a difficulty in processing the more intensely depicted main story lines," said Linda Breen.
The study goes on to say the shows were administered in 90 minute doses once a week and significantly improved the 14 year old boy's recognition of emotions and appropriate reactions.
This and other studies continuously cite the emotional potency of soap operas, and this is cause to wonder, "If the emotionally inept can learn to feel because of this overdose, how does such an intake affect my mind?"
A paper by doctors Shapiro and Kroeger in 1991 found startling results when observing the correlation between television viewing and unrealistic relationship expectations.
Another study by Klaudia J. Hafferkamp in 1999 expanded this research further by posing a survey to those who habitually watch high levels of soap operas: "Unrealistic relationship expectations play a significant role in exacerbating distress and conflict (Epstein, 1982, 1986).
"The Relationship Beliefs Inventory (RBI) (Epstein and Eidelson, 1981) measures dysfunctional relationship beliefs along five subscales: disagreement is destructive; mindreading is expected; partners cannot change; the sexes are different; and sexual perfectionism.
Within this description several things like soap operas, romance novels, hyperemotional reality shows, and even some dramatic romance movies fit nicely.
That is not to say that they are entirely explicit, but that the tug they impose on our hearts and emotions affects us in negative ways.
I hold a firm belief that media like this enjoys a terribly strong foothold in American society.
Let's break the concrete resistance to this idea with a study from 2007 by The Royal College of Psychiatrists which describes the effects of soap opera viewing on an emotionally impaired autistic child.
"The boy tended to drift towards dramatic sub-plots, perhaps reflecting a difficulty in processing the more intensely depicted main story lines," said Linda Breen.
The study goes on to say the shows were administered in 90 minute doses once a week and significantly improved the 14 year old boy's recognition of emotions and appropriate reactions.
This and other studies continuously cite the emotional potency of soap operas, and this is cause to wonder, "If the emotionally inept can learn to feel because of this overdose, how does such an intake affect my mind?"
A paper by doctors Shapiro and Kroeger in 1991 found startling results when observing the correlation between television viewing and unrealistic relationship expectations.
Another study by Klaudia J. Hafferkamp in 1999 expanded this research further by posing a survey to those who habitually watch high levels of soap operas: "Unrealistic relationship expectations play a significant role in exacerbating distress and conflict (Epstein, 1982, 1986).
"The Relationship Beliefs Inventory (RBI) (Epstein and Eidelson, 1981) measures dysfunctional relationship beliefs along five subscales: disagreement is destructive; mindreading is expected; partners cannot change; the sexes are different; and sexual perfectionism.
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