Bill Tancer, general manager of global research at Hitwise, writes in his new book Click: What Millions of People are Doing Online and Why It Matters that surfing for porn has dropped to about 10% of searches from 20% a decade ago, particularly among the 18-24 age group, only to be replaced by social networking sites. At first glance, this seems like great news—instead of the anti-social activity of sitting alone in front of a monitor masturbating, kids are being more social. That’s until you remember a couple things about social networking sites.
- You’re still sitting alone in front of a monitor. Being social requires other people being present otherwise it’s called corresponding.
- Instead of performances from paid “actors”, sites like MySpace provide the perhaps more titillating experience of “real people” with whom you can flirt and swap photos. If you want online sex you can get it from social networking as much as from porn. It’s still about sex. Alone.
Are we seeing a change in behavior? Not really, just a change in tastes. Money is being shifted away from porn to the more palatable social networking, yet our anti-social habits remain the same.
Tancer has more good news. America’s obsession with celebrities and image hasn’t slowed down a bit. Celebrity websites garner more attention than sites devoted to religion, politics, well-being and diets combined—with no sign that this is waning. In fact, web-surfers were far more interested in searching for images of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin than for information on her policies.
Voyeurism is still king, not matter how it’s packaged.
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