James Wood wrote a powerful essay here on a disturbing online subculture. He argues that the great 4th century theologian Augustine would not have been surprised and that his ancient theology articulates the solution.

“The phenomenon itself should not be described in detail. In brief, “gooning” refers to a hyper-extended form of pornography consumption in which participants seek to remain perpetually aroused—sometimes for hours or days—by immersing themselves in an endless stream of pornographic images and videos, often while deliberately extending sexual arousal. Many do so within online communities, where participants watch one another, exchange images, and actively spur each other on. The journalist’s investigation makes for disturbing reading, not just because of sexual explicitness, but because of the depth of despair it reveals.

What, if anything, might a fourth-century Christian theologian have to say to this? Quite a lot, as it turns out.

Augustine would not begin with mockery. Nor would he be surprised. Few thinkers have taken human desire more seriously—both its power and its tragic distortions. He understood lust not as a freakish perversion afflicting a few unfortunate souls, but as a paradigmatic example of what happens when love loses its order, when the body’s impulses and rational agency fall out of harmony. For Augustine, nowhere is this disorder more visible than in the way sexual arousal can overwhelm the will . . . “

The essay is worth reading in entirety.