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What Google searches for porn tell us about ourselves

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Re: What Google searches for porn tell us about ourselves

#41

Post by illnewsthat »

Spooky23 wrote: post #30

This makes Freakonomics sound like Nobel material. Completely vacuous. He uses the comparison that most men are looking to date skinny women, but that many men are "afraid" to act on their attraction to overweight women. Yet... nearly 40% of women are considered obese. About half are married or otherwise attached. Who is to say that the population of online daters strongly correlates with these terrified men?

> This makes Freakonomics sound like Nobel material. Completely vacuous.

That's ironic considering he was a guest on an earlier Freakonomics episode: http://freakonomics.com/podcast/big-penis-things-ask-google/

Re: What Google searches for porn tell us about ourselves

#42

Post by MaulingMonkey »

js2 wrote: post #27
infogulch wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, "whatever the browser gives up" more than enough to reliably identify people.

I work at Yahoo (er, Verizon). We absolutely do not correlate logged-in and logged-out data. I am going to assume the same for Google. Regardless, based on things like OS and IP, I understand how you could infer, say, an income range from that, but how precise could it be? But even assuming google/pornhub has identified me based on my browser fingerprint, how do they know my income level? I've never given that info t…

> Regardless, based on things like OS and IP, I understand how you could infer, say, an income range from that, but how precise could it be?

A simple geoip query is pretty accurate when it comes to placing my neighborhood, which is already a fairly big indicator of income level I believe. And all the laptop advertisements google is showing me because I looked up my laptop recently show they know plenty enough about my shopping habits to make some fairly accurate guesses about my demographics, I'd wager.

Re: What Google searches for porn tell us about ourselves

#43

Post by nv-vn »

mythrwy wrote: post #18

It may be (and I don't know) that a large group of people abstain from porn altogether. So the preference of people who visit Porn Hub may be just that and it isn't accurate to extrapolate this to society at large. The percentage of people liking "disgusting" porn for example may be higher among the group of people who habitually view porn. So I'm not sure it's fair to say that this desire translates into the general…

(Meta: why is this comment downvoted when it's saying pretty much the same thing as the top comment?)

Re: What Google searches for porn tell us about ourselves

#44

Post by overdunk »

sergiotapia wrote: post #4

>For example, I am certain a large number of men are more attracted to overweight women than skinny women but try to date skinny women to impress their friends and family members. That's quite a leap there Seth Stephens-Davidowitz.

This neglects the porn-as-spectacle aspect of entertainment value extracted by viewers of pornography.

But "large number" is a poorly defined qualifier.

10,000 individuals interested in an odd combination of diaper play involving amputees could be considered a "large number" (more than you might expect) but is handily dwarfed by three quarters of a billion vanilla viewers looking for consensual sex in the missionary position.

Meanwhile, gore and racism searches do not, a sociopathic Nazi, make. How does one learn about reality, without investigating it?

Everyone gets curious about how genitals manage to escape the undercarriage of a 450 lb. individual, just to understand how they manage to wipe after completing a bowel movement. The best source of insight into that kind of curiosity is satisfied by locating and viewing fetish pornography.

Re: What Google searches for porn tell us about ourselves

#45

Post by mythrwy »

nv-vn wrote: post #43
mythrwy wrote: post #18

It may be (and I don't know) that a large group of people abstain from porn altogether. So the preference of people who visit Porn Hub may be just that and it isn't accurate to extrapolate this to society at large. The percentage of people liking "disgusting" porn for example may be higher among the group of people who habitually view porn. So I'm not sure it's fair to say that this desire translates into the general…

(Meta: why is this comment downvoted when it's saying pretty much the same thing as the top comment?)

That's an interesting question and since you mention it, my suspicion is that it's in response to a disagreement with one or more frequent poster's political views some months ago.

I could be wrong about this, but almost every comment I have posted in a popular forum since that time has been down voted (usually this is overridden before long except in cases of comments that probably deserve down-votes which I do occasionally make).

It's not a big deal obviously but I'd like to address the poster(s) doing this (should they exist) and express my contempt for the pettiness of their approach and possibly bring moderator attention should it be warranted.

But in reality, the time it took to type this post is more effort than the action deserves. It is pretty juvenile though assuming I'm seeing correctly.

Re: What Google searches for porn tell us about ourselves

#46

Post by imron »

overdunk wrote: post #44
sergiotapia wrote: post #4

>For example, I am certain a large number of men are more attracted to overweight women than skinny women but try to date skinny women to impress their friends and family members. That's quite a leap there Seth Stephens-Davidowitz.

This neglects the porn-as-spectacle aspect of entertainment value extracted by viewers of pornography. But " large number " is a poorly defined qualifier. 10,000 individuals interested in an odd combination of diaper play involving amputees could be considered a " large number " (more than you might expect) but is handily dwarfed by three quarters of a billion vanilla viewers looking for consensual sex in the mission…

> Everyone gets curious about how genitals manage to escape the undercarriage of a 450 lb. individual

Not everyone.

Re: What Google searches for porn tell us about ourselves

#47

Post by overdunk »

imron wrote: post #46
overdunk wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This neglects the porn-as-spectacle aspect of entertainment value extracted by viewers of pornography. But " large number " is a poorly defined qualifier. 10,000 individuals interested in an odd combination of diaper play involving amputees could be considered a " large number " (more than you might expect) but is handily dwarfed by three quarters of a billion vanilla viewers looking for consensual sex in the mission…

> Everyone gets curious about how genitals manage to escape the undercarriage of a 450 lb. individual Not everyone.

I won't argue with you. I'm not quoting hard statistics, it's just a turn of phrase, given the context.

Re: What Google searches for porn tell us about ourselves

#48

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

adjkant wrote: post #33
passivepinetree wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What source do you have for "most porn is consumed as a substitute for sex with a partner?" That seems like a pretty big assertion and I'm inclined to disagree, but I'd like to hear your argument/reasoning/sources.

If you're inclined to disagree, how do you see it being consumed? As far as I know from my own experience, the vast majority of porn is consumed alone. I took that to be equivalent with the quoted section because I'm guessing most watching porn would also prefer sex with someone. It seems like your point is semantics to me unless you do truly believe that most porn is not consumed alone, in which case I'm really inte…

What? I know lots of couples, gay and straight, that watch porn together.

"I'm guessing most watching porn would also prefer sex with someone." That is also a bizarre assumption to make. Sure, perhaps in theory, but a lot of married people watch porn who like to fantasize but have no desire to cheat, lots of people watch porn who definitely don't want to have to deal with all the unfortunate risks (STDs, unwanted pregnancies, crazy exes) of actual sex.

Re: What Google searches for porn tell us about ourselves

#49

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

majani wrote: post #37
cthulhua wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe not that, but I bet a lot of Bourne/Bond/? fans think super-competent badasses are cool.

That was his point. You can just watch something edgy cause you think it's cool, not cause you want to experience it in real life.

Having a fantasy doesn't necessarily mean you want to experience it in real life.

Re: What Google searches for porn tell us about ourselves

#50

Post by moredatapoints »

onelildatapoint wrote: post #6

not that it proves much overall, but the porn i masturbate to actually has little to do with what i enjoy sexually with a live woman. i'm sure i'm not the only one

Same here. Not to get too graphic, but sometimes I close the laptop and think, "would I actually like to do that?" And the answer is usually "no".
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