Who is Watching 3 Hour Porn Flicks?

In an age of instant gratification and 30 second videos, why are porn movies getting so long … I think I’ve figured it out.

It’s become trite to say it, but our attention spans are sh&t these days. Between Twitter, YouTube, and all the other social media platforms, we’ve become incapable of paying attention to anything that goes on for more than half a minute. At work the other day, while working with an online communications consultant, I was proud of the video I had made that distilled a highly complex economic concept down to three minutes online — his only comment — ‘wayyy too long; cut it by at least half.

So why, in the face of this diminishing desire for length and detail, are the movies I’m pulling up on my online porn streaming service all clocking in at three hours plus these days?

The answer lies in the economics, I suspect. These sites — at least the ones I partake in — operate on a pay-per-minute basis. After the PornHub scandal last year, I decided to take a more enlightened approach to my porn consumption. I signed up for a couple of porn streaming services that marketed themselves as more empowering to actors, more ethical in their production, and promised to ensure revenues returned to those who made the movies.