Well, this was an interesting find. According to a CNN/Time article, Facebook is a more popular destination for young people than adult entertainment. Somewhat interesting to be sure, but in a Freakonomics style of analysis, both sites are filling a human need to socailize, but as opposed to “connecting” with a model that there is no hope with, social sites allow for the possibility of real connection – could that be the reason that they are getting more hits than pr0n? From the article:
… Not so for 18- to 24-year-olds, for whom social networks rank first, followed by search engines, then web-based e-mail — with porn sites lagging behind in fourth. If you chart the rate of visits to social-networking sites against those to adult sites over the last two years, there appears to be a strong negative correlation (i.e., visits to social networks go up as visits to adult sites go down). It’s a leap to say there’s a real correlation there, but if there is one, then I’d bet it has everything to do with Gen Y’s changing habits: they’re too busy chatting with friends to look at online skin.
The old web was driven by girls, games and gambling – I wonder what the new web will have – social networking, sales and … sex?
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