Masturbation is bad man. I can feel it. Especially if you are an athlete, you can almost never reach your full potential. I have MOed with adequate gaps in between, but it drains me badly. For me the rule is one MO = 3 days workout waste. Binge almost sets me wayyyyyyy back.
I think porn is worse. Porn is high octane sexualized content. There was times when I was in a steady, sexual relationship with a woman. No surprise, watching porn then made real sex, kind of boring. Having actual missionary position sex was no longer thrilling. Then, I'd attempt to act upon some of the porn scenes with my partner, which made her uncomfortable. Porn warped my brain. If I do M now, I use my imagination, but I don't rerun scripts in my head.
Both are bad but porn is definitely worse. I'd rather to fap to some random pictures on the web and not to porn
Masturbation is worse for YOU because it screws with your biology. Porn is worse for THE WORLD because of the damaging effects of the porn industry on both men and women.
For me porn is worse. If I get hooked on that I can literally spend all day viewing it online, it effects every aspect of my life in a negative way. Masturbation just focuses all my attention on my penis. Which there is really only one goal, to make it cum. Doesn't really trip me up like the endless possibilities of porn
One other dimension - time. I can spend hours viewing porn and wasting my day, getting nothing done. With M, the deed is done and I go about my day.
Porn is definitely a lot worse. It warps the mind and creates unrealistic ideas of sex. It controls you. Masturbation, excessively, is bad, but during sex perhaps or from time to time without porn and instead using your imagination, or maybe looking at pictures or very softcore videos is okay. Only if its every few months, just to keep you healthy (once or twice every few months or so reduces risks of ED). But if you have sex, what's the point? If you are risking relapsing or becoming addicted again, don't do it. If you trust yourself not to relapse or become addicted, then its fine, as long as its limited.
Basically, masturbation is a reaction to porn. Porn symbolizes a sexual partner and masturbation symbolizes you having sex with that 'pixel person' on the screen. The two go hand in hand. Masturbation without porn might seem lacking to some and vice versa. To me. it'd be worse masturbating, for wasting the life energy in semen over a screen image is blatantly self-degrading. Observing an erotic image from time to time without masturbating to it is a sort of victory. If you do this moderately, it will prevent severe energy blockage, otherwise, if you go cold turkey, the ego and mind will fight the deprivation and give you many arousal disturbances. Nobody wants this yet many on this site relapse anyway. The energy has to keep flowing forward so you can get things done properly and without delay. Destroy the mind games by seeing a beautiful nude from time to time. Just don't react to it. This satisfies the mind, your energy won't be blocked, you can do what you wish with your life without porn and masturbation addiction in your life any longer. As for me, my daily streak meter will keep growing and I would only check back on this site every two weeks because I refuse to be bogged down with reading one relapse story after another!
The entire problem lies in dopamine receptors shut down due to overstimulation. Your body protects you this way from repeating the same activity which would lead to your death if it were to give you all the time the same high. Porn coupled with masturbation creates superstimulation of your brain. Our predecessors could in no way get this high (not even during real sex with multiple woman). Have you ever tried to masturbate without porn? I mean without thinking about porn situations and porn actress? The dopamine rush from masturbating using your imagination is nowhere as high as it is while you are exposed to a visual stimuli. Only watching porn itself energizes my brain at roughly the same level as when i orgasm by masturbating without porn (that is my subjective experience). So to answer your question - masturbating without visual stimuli sucks. For me personally it is hadly imaginable i would be addicted on it. Porn boosts dopamine response dramatically and for extended time period leading to partial dopamine receptors deactivation. This is backed by science. And this is where problems begin - studying, working, socialising and all these healthy activites are no longer aluring to you. And you become pleasure seeker a slave. When you masturbate without porn you get spikes of dopamine only when u orgasm. When you watch the porn you are esentially spiking all the time. Correct me if im wrong. Hope this was insightful.
I just substitute the word fantasy with its close cousin delusion and I'm pretty convinced that it's not good for my mind. I'm trying to evolve and respond to reality around me, which I've been good at hiding from since a kid.
It depends how each is affecting your life. You get to decide if either or both are problems. For me, porn is worse. It's what leads me to unhealthy masturbation and worse. It's Pandora's box.