There are three types of porn users. Which one are you?

Here’s something I know you’ve been losing sleep over: What type of porn user am I?

Put me in a box! you say. I want to know what category my porn habits fall into!

Well, sleepless-porn-using-friend, you’ve come to the right place. Here am I, about to cure your insomnia and desperation for labels with one swift onslaught of information.

It turns out there are three types of porn users, according to a recent study in the Journal of Sexual Medicine. (Ahem, well four, if you consider the type of porn user who doesn’t watch porn at all. But who am I to refute science?)

A Canadian team of researchers at the Université Laval in Quebec sifted through bucket loads of survey data and found there’s the recreational user, the compulsive user, and the distressed user when it comes to watching porn.

Of the 830 people who participated in the survey:

• about 70 per cent were women
• 80 per cent were heterosexual
• 35 per cent were married or living together
• 35 per cent were single
• 29 per cent were dating
• and the mean age was 25

Participants were asked how compulsive their porn use was (are you addicted to porn?); how hard they work to access it (do you re-arrange your schedule to watch it?); and the level of emotional distress elicited when finished watching (do you feel ashamed after watching?).

Madison Missina talks about how you can watch ethical porn. Post continues after audio…

So which one are you? Let’s take a look.

Recreational

According to the research, 75 per cent of participants fell into the “recreational” group, and on average watch about 24 minutes of porn per week. Perhaps unsurprisingly, people in relationships were over-represented in this group, as were women. Recreational users reported higher sexual satisfaction.

Distressed

Nearly 13 per cent of those surveyed fell into the “highly distressed non-compulsive” category, who reported often feeling ashamed after engaging in pornography. On average, they watched 17 minutes of porn a week.

Compulsive

Compulsive users watched an average of 110 minutes of porn a week, and men were over-represented in this category, which made up only 12 per cent of respondents.

According to the study, “users with a compulsive profile presented lower sexual satisfaction and dysfunction and higher sexual compulsivity and avoidance”.

So there you have it. Which one are you?