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By "porn" I am referring to media which gussies up things to make them seem more enticing and less mundane than they are in real life. Examples include:
--High fashion, where clothes are modeled on extremely skinny women that 99.9999% of real people do not resemble
--Car magazines, which describe and photograph the joys of driving the latest hyper-expensive Italian exotic through the deserted hills of the Canary Islands when, in real life, even if you could afford such a car, you would often be stuck in traffic and dodging speed bumps to avoid scraping the bottom.
--Food commercials (esp. fast-food commercials) which use trickery and photographic technique to make food much more appetizing than what you'll actually get if you purchase it.
--The rebooted Hawaii Five-O TV show. Yes, Hawaii is gorgeous, but the show producers crank up the contrast on their establishing shots to make the ocean look REALLY BLUE and the foliage REALLY GREEN. And while the Honolulu Police Department has many fine people in it, I doubt any of them actually look like the hunky leading stars on the show, or Grace Park.
So, what kind of "porn" do you like to indulge in?
Word Porn is my favorite.
I recently read an article about research suggesting that, all other things being equal, women prefer men with superior story-telling/narrative skills. In other...ahem, words, word porn works...;-D...
That article hit it right on the head. :)
Well.... don't hate me but... I am certain I am not going to answer your question in any manner you are "looking for" once more. It is because I dislike using the word PORN to describe this stuff. I understand what you are saying. I don't think it passes for PORN save in the same manner that prostitution fits the definition of a person who sells out some part of his soul. I get it. It is not accurate because porn to me will always include some salacious sex to get your senses salivating. Prostitution will always manage to have a body sold into sexual submission. But that is semantics. We can argue definitions until the cows come home.
You bring up a great point. There is a ton of garbage out there and the media wants to portray what sells. I am not sure but I think the National Enquirer is the best selling magazine in the USA. If we would have paid attention to this fact and really digested the horror of what this actually reveals about us as a nation of mindless idiots, maybe we could have nipped the idea of what sells in the bud. And do not get me wrong. I am not saying that porn is worse than this. I think that this is MUCH worse than watching sex tapes. Because people do not even realize they are wasting their minds buying into the garbage that passes for truth in entertainment and reality.
Instead? We want instant gratification and we keep buying up anything that is an instant "treat" to our brains. Like porn, they are easier, softer obtainable answers to what we really, actually crave. Why work for the real thing, when we can get horny looking at some perfect body going to town and not have to do the work to reach "ecstacy?" You know, like meeting an actual person and having a relationship? That takes work and effort.
Why think when we can turn on reality TV? We can feel superior in comparison to people who are close to mentally challenged and call that entertainment. Gossip shows are what pass for the morning news. If we have some actual news to report, it must be peppered with who Kim Kardashian is dating so we don't get bored with something too heavy. I mean we might have to research and see if Donald Trump's nonsense has any merit whatsoever? Nah. He is rich and he musrt know what he is doing. Let's VOTE. SOUNDS GOOD!!!! That is worse than PORN any day. The closest words I can use to describe it are Propaganda designed to keep us barefoot and stupid. It is working and the worst part is, the USA loves their handlers. They love being sheep who just knee-jerk react and never think past what thrills their senses for the next 5 or 10 minutes.
That is why I am no fun. I don't adhere to anything that passes for truth that is NOT truth. I find it boring and irritating.
I like the Nat Geo (and others) underwater shots that are so photo shopped to get the brilliant colors to pop off the screen.
Having hundreds of dives in my log the colors are never that bright even with a bank of flood lights. Beautiful but not as shown on TV or in the magazines.
You bring up some salient points about the subject. I use the term "porn" because somehow that because the term of art between me and my friends. When I give my copy of the latest Car & Driver magazine to my friend I say, "I've got new car porn for you."
Your criticisms of people who let "porn" (in whatever domain) overly shape their views/behaviors about reality and of the eventual weariness "porn" can produce are well-taken.
I live on O'ahu and it IS beautiful here. But, as I noted in the question, it is not (at least not always) super-hyper-intense beautiful as it is portrayed on TV. So I know exactly whereof you speak.
Oh I know. Never see a picture of Hawaii that is not brilliantly green or blue.
Blue water ocean is beautiful but never that bright.
And being the hypocrite I am, I neglected to mention that I am just as guilty. Upon reflection I remember a short while ago that I loved this show. This guy always came up with the right answers despite impossible odds and there is no WAY he could have done so, even though they came up with very clever plot lines. I bought into it because I wanted him to be that smart. I WANTED THAT. LOL I want to believe that someone is this brilliant and some of it will rub off on me.
@SQbNK -- It's OK. As the old aphorism states, everybody "does it" or lies about it....;-D...
Because I have (relatively mild) psoriasis, I notice the TV ads for psoriasis treatments which are very much like you describe. Of course, when you look at the potential side effects (nausea, GI distress, liver malfunction, death), I'd much rather have the psorasis. The people at the yoga studio or off-leash dog park can just deal with it....;-D..
