Facebook Not More Popular Than Porn

Since I’m still at work and it’s a beautiful Friday, I’ve got to do something productive, right? Sooner than later, I wanted to give my response to it.

The online component of the TIME Magazine, time.com, published on October 31st 2007 an article which got alot of attention on the Internet as it was during the Facebook-hype. The article was called “Facebook: More Popular Than Porn“, and I don’t agree with it at all. Here’s why:

1. The age group is too high

According to the article, the numbers they (TIME) got from Hitwise was focused mostly on 18- to 24-year-old internet users. It’s no wonder adult entertainment industry on the web didn’t get more results, because the age group is too high. Consider my thoughts:

1.1. Younger teenagers visit more porn

A fact I can’t underline enough, it seems. When does teenagers really get into porn? At the age of 18? Don’t make me laugh! It’s when puberty starts fucking up with the internal pressure system, and boys needs to see some tits (and not the flying kind, mind you). So the approporiate age group, if porn were to be compared to Facebook, would be 13-17.

1.2. Older teenagers have sex

Although this might not include the people who use the Internet the most (nerds in general), older teenagers (18-19 and above-teenage group) are usually sexually active. That means they’ve either got a girlfriend or boyfriend to fuck with, hence they don’t need as much porn as they did before. The 40-year old virgin is a myth in this day and age, and if it was true…fuck it.

2. It was a hype at the time

Facebook was a hype, much like Halo 3 to Xbox 360 or Crysis to the PC. Everyone was into it, it seemed, and anyone who wasn’t registered were either a) and idiot or b) retarded. Comparing a hyped thing against a veteran thing is wrong for the facts that a hype will decrease over time and eventually die because of fatigue thanks to competition.

A veteran, on the other hand, doesn’t have (or have few) competitors on the market. I mean, what does porn on the Internet really go up against? Maddox? LOLcats? Me? I’ll quit the Internet when porn ceases to exist. It’s like destroying a pillar inside an old castle; you don’t know if the whole building’ll fall on your head.

Thankfully the hype of Facebook have been decreasing. Not only because people get tired of the amount of e-mail spam they get, but also because of privacy issues and such. This ain’t the post to discuss those matters.

3. Streaming sites and torrent trackers

Again, the article relies on simple facts when they conclude that visits to porn sites have had a 33% decline during the recent years. One of the facts they completely rely on is this: People need to go to different porn sites to get different kinds of porn. That fact, in this day and age, is utterly and completely bullshit. Two reasons why the porn sites have had such a decline recent years:

3.1. Streaming sites

Thanks to YouTube, users in general have been used to streaming video online. Before YouTube and other streaming sites, you generally had to download the movies/clips and play it locally from your computer. This includes porn.

Nowadays you can get porn for free (tohugh through advertisement on page) at sites resembling YouTube, which focuses on adult content. Popular sites are YouPorn, Redtube, HQTube, and the list goes on…

3.2. Torrent trackers

Thanks to the BitTorrent-sharing technology, people have learned how to share larger files - for instance a large porn movie - without using the same kind of bandwith they had to do years back. Popular torrent trackers are popular for just one thing: you get what you’re after.

For instance, alot of users still don’t know that the Pirate Bay have huge amounts of porn-torrents (check the Top 100). It’s just that they cover it up some, not to attract attention to it. Some torrent trackers does not have porn, such as Mininova and Demonoid.

Then there’s the torrent trackers who’s main (or only) sharing interest is porn. These sites usually require users to sign up and log in before viewing the content, but there are exceptions.

4. Summary and conclusion

It might seem I vouch for alot of different sites that emphasizes porn, I’m not. Neither do I hate it, but I felt it was necessary to include the sites’ names for credibility. This text was neither about porn sites only, but a response on why porn sites’ traffic have declined the recent years, and how Facebook’s traffic have gone up.

The conclusion is that the TIME’s article is wrong, as it makes users think that people loves Facebook more than porn. If you’d want to compare porn traffic, you’d have to use the age group with highest porn usage. Meaning teenagers ranging from 13 to 17. Porn sites in general might have declined traffic-wise, but that is not because of Facebook, but because of new ways of spreading/sharing porn.

And as the producer of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Rick Berman, said:

The Internet was built on two things: Pornography and Star Trek.