NoFap - Period Porn

NoFap (fap: an internet slang term for male masturbation) is an online community that serves as a support group for those who wish to avoid the use of pornography, masturbation, and/or sexual intercourse. The subreddit currently has over 200,000 members.

Founding

NoFap was founded in June 2011 by Alexander Rhodes after a thread on Reddit about a study that found that men who don’t masturbate for seven days experience a 45.7% increase in testosterone levels hit the front page of a popular forum on Reddit.

After this, Rhodes created NoFap as a "subreddit" forum community on Reddit. At first, NoFap ran weekly and monthly challenges for a small group of people on the forum, and then the NoFap administrators created a badge system, and now forum members set their own challenges based upon their own personal goals.

NoFap.com

Users on NoFap's subreddit more than tripled in number in two years, leading Rhodes to build an off-Reddit forum at NoFap.com and began other plans to better serve the website's fast-growing factions in Brazil, Germany, and China. NoFap.com is a forum-style website where individuals who have committed to abstain from pornography and masturbation for a period of time can talk about their experiences and engage in challenges to help them recover. NoFap.com is the sister website of the Reddit-hosted NoFap community.

Membership

Demographics

The membership of NoFap ranges from atheists, like founder Rhodes, to fundamentalist Christians. Women are also a part of NoFap. The users of the website call themselves "Fapstronauts", while others with a similar worldview are called "nofappers". Some porn addicts seek out NoFap for help, while others join the website for the challenge or to improve their interpersonal relationships.

Beneficial effects

After abstaining from porn and masturbation for a period of time, some of NoFap's users claim, among others, "dramatic increases in social confidence, energy levels, concentration levels, mental acuity, motivation, self-esteem, emotional stability, happiness, sexual prowess, and attractiveness to the opposite sex". Some NoFap users say their brains were warped by porn, at the expense of real relationships.

Reception and criticism

Some journalists have criticized NoFap, participating in it and then criticizing it. According to Elizabeth Brown, neuroscientists have questioned some of the claims made by people on NoFap. One psychologist, David J. Ley, wrote: "I’m not in opposition to them, but I do think their ideas are simplistic, naive and promote a sad, reductionistic and distorted view of male sexuality and masculinity".

Behavior scientists have used statistics gathered from NoFap to study addiction. Robert Weiss of The Huffington Post sees NoFap as part of a tech backlash. The endeavor has also been criticized as generating embarrassing side effects such as prolonged or unwanted erections in men or an excessive libido.