porn knocked out of first place

A few years ago, no one would have ever believed it could happen, but now it has: social media has surpassed pornography as the number one activity on the web.

For a while there, it seemed the evolutionary purpose of the Internet was to become the biggest, most user-friendly and prosperous sex shop ever. And while porn isn't going away anytime soon, it's clear that community building and human connection are increasingly more important to people.

Consuming porn is, overwhelmingly, a solitary activity, which can reinforce social isolation in those who are loners (who needs real relationships, real love?), or destroy romantic relationships through dependency. Social media, including this site, serves the opposite purpose: to connect us to each other, to share information, emotions, ideas, to create networks of like-minded people who can then take action to create the world we want to exist.

I'm not demonizing porn itself (my views: using porn to indulge fantasies and exercise sexual creativity = good; exploiting women and enforcing gender stereotypes = bad), but I think of porn as a symbol of the ego-based material world we wish to change. It's self-indulgent, consumer-driven and, while it taps into our psyche, is without spiritual dimension. It does not have potential as a tool for change or love the way social media has.

Social media, while still in its initial stages, can dig us out of the hole quicker than pornography can, so the fact that we're reaching in that direction is larger and larger numbers is a great sign.

More recent-ish social media stats here:
http://socialnomics.net/2009/08/11/statistics-show-social-media-is-bigge...