Social networking ‘more popular than porn’
- Added:
- Sep 17, 2008
Social networking sites have overtaken pornography as the most searched for category among Internet users, according to a new book.
In his new book, Bill Tancer, general manager of global research at Hitwise, analysed information for over 10 million web users to conclude that we are, in fact, what we click, with Internet searches giving an up-to-date view of how society and people are changing.
In the book "Click: What Millions of People are Doing Online and Why It Matters", Tancer said analysing web searches did not just reflect what was happening online but gave a wider picture of society and people's behavior.
Tancer said one of the major shifts in Internet use in the past decade had been the fall off in interest in pornography or adult entertainment sites.
He said surfing for porn had dropped to about 10% of searches from 20% a decade ago, and the hottest Internet searches now are for social networking sites.
"As social networking traffic has increased, visits to porn sites have decreased," said Tancer, indicated that the 18-24 year old age group particularly was searching less for porn."My theory is that young users spend so much time on social networks that they don't have time to look at adult sites."
Tancer said the change in communication patterns was one of the most noticeable shifts in society in the past five years.
Tancer said the current obsession with celebrities was also reflected through web data, with celebrity websites garnering more attention than sites devoted to religion, politics, well-being and diets combined, with no sign that this is waning.