The digital age has completely changed any conversation relating to sex. Statistics tell us that by the time a college student arrives on campus, they have been exposed to sexually explicit material for an average of seven years.

Those of us who work with students on a regular basis recognize the emotional and spiritual toll this takes on those on our campuses. We see the numbness, the apathy and the brokenness that often accompanies this saturation of explicit material.

Increasingly, I am becoming more aware of the physical manifestations of a sexual identity formed in the digital age. There is a growing amount of research relating to the actual neurological changes caused by long-term exposure to explicit material. The scientific term for this is neuroplasticity.  Neurologically speaking, route behaviors we participate in have the ability to wire our brain to respond in certain ways and to specific stimuli.

For instance if you take the same route to work each day, I am guessing you can drive it without having to even think about it. Neuroplasticity has, in many ways, equipped each of us with our own personal autopilot.

So how does this translate to sex?

For the college student, being exposed to sexually explicit material for one-third of their lifetime qualifies as a ‘route behavior’. The research indicates the average student then arrives on campus with a perspective of sex that is not only distorted, but neurologically wired into their brain.

This perspective is ingrained with the natural chemical dopamine as its reward. The dopamine that is released during sexual arousal and orgasm becomes like natural heroin that can continually be obtained by the simple click of a mouse. As with any drug, the body adapts to what it is taking in and the need for increased consumption is necessary to get high.

However, the release of dopamine requires novelty. To continually obtain the high, or in this case become aroused- there must be something new to simulate us. We can see this with the natural progression of online images-to videos -to hardcore videos and chat rooms.

The digital age provides whatever that ‘new’ stimuli  needs to be and provides it in quantities young adult brains were never meant to handle.

What does this mean for those of us who desire a healthy dialogue about sex with our students?  I think it means that we must understand:

1) Students not only come with emotional and spiritual baggage relating to sex…they come with physical baggage as well.

Not just the morning-after regret for their Friday night hook up, but deeply ingrained, neurologically predisposed perspectives about their sexual behaviors. They are most often unaware of this baggage and where it comes from.

2) There is a need for a more comprehensive conversation about the effects of a sexual identity formulated largely behind a keyboard and a mouse.

For an increasing number of individuals, this deficient sexual identity has led to: social withdrawal, depression, and even sexual dysfunction outside of their digital context. We must recognize the significance of these needs in the same way we recognize the significance of food for someone who is starving. They must be addressed as we attempt to help our students find healing.

3) The need for conversation partners who can help us expand our own understanding.

This research has given me new insights in the sexual perspectives of young adults. It also reminds me that my understanding of neurology (and quite frankly anything scientific) is limited. I am not a doctor…and I don’t pretend to play one in real life. Therefore, I have found it helpful to reach out to others whose perspectives help me expand my own. I believe that any conversation relating to sex must begin to span both the church and the academy.

In many ways, young adults are running on autopilot when it comes to their perspectives of sex. They are often relying on ingrained understandings and behaviors that are not formulated by their parents, or by the church, but by the digital age in which they have grown up. As a shepherd to these individuals, any effective dialogue I attempt to have with them must acknowledge this.

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