Most people would not think of Facebook as cleaning up the Internet. Nor would they find YouTube a source of goodwill.
Yet there is statistical evidence that shows that, as social networking and file-sharing sites gain more and more attention, Internet users under 25 turn away from pornography, instead preferring to spend their time on less unsavory matters.
Thus, social networking sites are not only useful but are also attracting a generation of vulnerable Internet users away from lecherous material that may have deleterious effects.
In terms of analyzing this trend, there is no better place to look than the Internet itself.
One helpful resource, Alexa.com, lists the 500 most visited Web sites on the Internet. Four of the top 10 spots are sites dedicated to social networking ““ Myspace at No. 6, Facebook at No. 7, Hi5 at No. 9, and orkut at No. 10. The most popular site is Yahoo, with Google in second. Windows Live, also a search engine and a fancy name for Hotmail, is No. 5. YouTube is third.
As Windows Live, Google and Yahoo all offer very popular e-mail and messenger clients, they can also be included ““ at least to some degree ““ in the “social networking” category.
That means that eight of the top 10 sites on the Internet are at least in some way communication options. In fact, the trend continues far past the top 10.
Not until slot 42 does pornography make its first appearance (Megarotic.com). With only one exception, it does not appear again in the top 100 (No. 65).
The vast majority of the remaining sites are search engines and file-sharing networks.
These statistics are pretty black and white ““ they are calculated by anonymously monitoring the activity of users who have installed the Alexa toolbar.
Time magazine reports that in the 18 to 24-year-old demographic, visits to pornographic sites have dropped by a third, from 16.9 percent of site visits in October of 2005 to October of this year.
The movement to these types of sites is also quite far reaching.
Users are not only spending time on the sites but also are more likely to continue using the Internet to communicate after leaving a particular social network.
Hitwise’s data, reported on in the same Time article, point out the sites most commonly visited immediately after using a social networking service: search engines, e-mail providers and blogs (in descending order).
Though not scientific, it makes common sense to conclude that the Facebooks, MySpaces, Friendsters, Hi5s and orkuts of today’s Internet not only absorb great deals of our generation’s time but also (and as a result) limit the amount of time and thought that today’s youth give to online pornography.
Admittedly, there are issues with the data. Search engines are often used to find pornography, and while Facebook might have millions of users viewing its one site, pornography is likely to be a less loyal media ““ visitors do not view a single site loyally enough to earn a top 10 spot for the content.
And yet there is further evidence that youth Internet usage is turning away from pornography and toward more socially accepted activities.
According to an Associated Press article from last week, GodTube.com is the single fastest growing Web site on the Internet.
The site offers Christian music in addition to theological debates and satires. Content ranges from “What will you do the next time porn strikes?” to “Is the new Nicole Kidman movie promoting atheism to kids?” to “Jesus Divine Mercy images and chanting.”
Last month, the site drew 4 million unique visitors.
The article alludes to an increasing number of religious sites choosing to mirror secular forms.
MyChurch.org and Conservapedia.com, for example, etymologically channel the popular appeal of MySpace and Wikipedia in hopes of similar success.
It seems that, more and more, the college demographic is too caught up in Facebook profiles and Gmail threads to continue its loyal relationship with Internet pornography.
Students are, as the Time article puts it, “too busy chatting with (their) friends to look at online skin. Imagine.”
The news is not all good. While a turn away from pornography may create a better “moral society,” social networking sites do not come without cost: Remember that paper due tomorrow?
Given up porn for Google and Facebook? E-mail Makarechi at kmakarechi@ucla.edu. Send general comments to viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.