Social Networks Are The New Porn

Since the rise of the internet in the 1990s, pornography has ruled the internet. While difficult to measure accurately, the online pornography industry is estimated to be worth about $1 billion, and counts for about 13% of website visits in America (compared to search engines, which account for 7%). But it appears that new uses are about to overtake pornography in terms of online popularity.
The Economist is reporting that according to Hitwise data, pornography-related web activity is decreasing in America (as a proportion of total visits), as more and more people are opting to participate in social networking sites such as MySpace, Bebo and Facebook. Since the data presented is limited to February, a definitive conclusion is hard to make, but traffic to these social networking sites may have already overtaken traffic to sex-related sites, and if not, will probably do so any day now.

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