I definitely take issue with the methodology here. Http browsing in general is rather passé among youths, I think, and so examining the number of porn websites one visits, even the frequency of the visits, is absurd. It makes sense to me that users "over 25" are still visiting "porn sites," as youth now are without a doubt swapping high quality porn over torrent networks. I am extremely interested to know which domains were being monitored in this study. More data, more data! Ever the complaint, no? But really, I think that youth are if anything enjoying higher quality porn, much more data, and probably more time spent WATCHING porn, albeit less acquiring it, as adding a torrent is a 5-second process and then requires no oversight. Just my two cents. I do not believe that youth suddenly don't care about "skin." Charles Ess wrote:
Readers of Time Magazine must have noted the claim by Bill Tancer:
Visits to porn sites have dropped from 16.9% of all site visits in the U.S. in October 2005 to 11.9% as of last week, a 33% decline. Currently, for web users over the age of 25, Adult Entertainment still ranks high in popularity, coming in second, after search engines. 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. Imagine.
He's drawing on data from his own company, Hitwise -
the full story is available online:
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1678586,00.html
thoughts and comments?
- charles
Distinguished Research Professor, Global Studies Center <http://www.drury.edu/gp21> Drury University Springfield, MO 65802 USA
Guest Professor (fall, 2007), Department of Media Studies Department of Media Studies IT Park Helsingforsgade 14 8200 Aarhus N Denmark Office: (45) 8942 9219 Mobile: (45) 2986 8967
President, Association of Internet Researchers <www.aoir.org> Co-Editor, International Journal of Internet Research Ethics http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/SOIS/cipr/ijire.html Co-chair, CATaC conferences <www.catacconference.org> Professor II, Globalization and Applied Ethics Programmes <http://www.anvendtetikk.ntnu.no/pres/bridgingcultures.php>
Exemplary persons seek harmony, not sameness. -- Analects 13.23
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