I suspect this thread will end up with lots of flaming and condescending posts but I'll give it a try anyway. I hope it encourages some healthy discussion, because I suspect I'm not the only one who feels this way. This isn't necessarily an anti-porn thread.
Anyway, I never had "the talk" with my parents. They've never been open about sex and when I have asked questions they weren't exactly detailed. The first time my parents brought up anything remotely sexually inclined was when they bought me a pack of condoms when my first girlfriend slept round for the night (I was 16 at the time). They just gave me the box and an awkward smile. I look back now and find it hilarious. In a nut shell, my adult education was awful. Basically non existent. This lead me to learning my sexual education through porn, sleazy websites and romantic comedies. I thought it was good at the time because I never had a sexual related issue with my long term girlfriend. We had a great sex life and I attributed porn to being why.
As the years went on, I steadily had to look at more hardcore porn to get myself off. I was desensitizing myself. My outlook on women had changed. I found it hard to maintain a decent erection during sex. This really got to me as I knew it wasn't right. I did my research on porn induced sexual dysfunction and found a growing community of people like me (young men who had grown up watching porn) and all the signs were there. If you grow up with porn hard wired in your brain, your outlook on sex is going to be different than to a person who has grown up without. The science is quite interesting.
http://yourbrainonporn.com/
I was basically a porn addict. I would spend around an hour browsing the internet finding porn to get me off and then experience a melancholic state after the deed was done. I would see women as tits and ass and I felt awful about it. The trends were there with all the women I dated. The problem wasn't going away. A pep talk with my little guy before the big show wasn't going to work so, I decided to quit porn cold turkey to see it it helped.
Surprisingly it wasn't as hard as I thought (no pun intended). I attribute that to a lot of support through various websites and from the information I had learnt. I occasionally craved for some of my more favourite porn scenes but always resisted. It's been around 5 months since and my mentality has changed enormously for the better (which inspired me to make this thread).
I thought it would be interesting to share my experience. Don't by shy to share yours.