Social Networking Sites more popular than Porn Sites???

Well, this news in ET yesterday caught my immediate attention which reads something like this – “Social networking sites are the hottest attraction on the Internet, dethroning pornography and highlighting a major change in how people communicate, according to a Web guru. Bill Tancer, a self-described “data geek”, has 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. Tancer, general manager of global research at Hitwise, an Internet tracking company, 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 per cent of searches from 20 per cent a decade ago, and the hottest Internet searches now are for social networking sites.” (Source: Economic Times dated 22nd Sep’08)

Prima facie it looks like a good news, isn’t it? Atleast parents of growing kids and admin guys in corporates can heave a sigh of relief to read this, they need not worry about monitoring their kids and employees respectively and brooding over their wasting time on internet by searching and surfing adult contents. As per Tancer’s assumption, young people aged between 18-24 are spending more and more time on social networks and hence they are not left with much time to spend on porn sites… Hmmm interesting observation but is it the reality??? Don’t you think this is a very theoretical assumption? Well, we all know that almost all social networking sites are full of porn and adult content, infact I think its all the more easier to access such content through these social networking sites. I know of parents who have put filter for certain URLs in their home computers but of course have allowed sites like Orkut and facebook as that’s where their kids prefer to spend most of their times, now isn’t it true that most of the teenagers these days can access any kind of porn content on social networking sites like orkut or video sites like youtube? Infact finding girls / boys, contacting them, sex-chatting, dating etc have become so easy these days through these sites and almost all possible information are available at one place only. Now why will the searching of porn content not go down when everything is so easily accessible now? Social networking sites are definitely getting more and more popular day by day and yes youngsters are spending more time on such sites than specific porn sites these days but isn’t it because of apart from other X reasons like bonding with friends, finding old friends etc, youngsters are surfing lots of porn content on these sites itself? Well, atleast I strongly think so and feel porn is another spicy hook for social networking sites being so sticky apart from other reasons like friends, hobbies, games, applications, networking etc etc etc.

Enough of friends, movies & music, now its turn for ghosts!

I still can’t believe this 🙂, quite interesting I must say. Initially when I had read this news in March, I just couldn’t believe that someone was actually thinking on this line and I was almost sure that it would be some sort of media rumor, but no I was wrong. It actually is true that now there will be a social networking site for ghosts and aliens! Oh yes, Steven Spielberg is actually launching a ghost / UFO centric social networking website which will be for people who would like to share and discuss paranormal and extraterrestrial experiences.

Speculations are still on about the name of the portal. Some say it will be called “Ghosts”, some call it as “Ghost Town”, latest update being that the site is perhaps going to be called “The Rising” or “Rising”. Apart from networking angle, the site will also have original video content focusing on alleged ghost and UFO stories. Now we all know the connection between Steven Spielberg and paranormal experiences. Who can forget movies like E.T The Extra Terrestrial, Close Encounter of the third world, Jurrasic Park etc which are one of the highest grosser of all times at box office! Steven at many occasions has also narrated some real life chilling experiences about his encounter with ghosts and supernatural forces. Well, don’t know to what extent his experiences are real but he definitely claims that ghosts and aliens do exist and because of some real life experiences, he got inspired to make movies on this subject.

After general networking, vertical specific networking was definitely slated to be the next big trend in community industry but being niche to this level following a specific vertical is definitely some disruption I must say. And though I don’t believe in such phenomenon (rather I don’t want to believe I guess 🙂) but still there is a large chunk of people who believe in such clairvoyant experiences. And for such TG this kind of open forum will be definitely great wherein they can discuss and share their views with like minded people and know more about it. Hmmm, so looks like enough of networking sites for friends, dating, movies, music, college reunion etc etc, well now it’s the turn of ghosts and bhoooot!