Porn in Good Taste

ENOUGH I SAY! To the planners, producers and A/C directors who work in Interactive media, seated conveniently across from designers and art directors aplenty - there is simply no longer an excuse for stuffy diagrams, obscure charts and concentric circular diagrams which are supposed to tell us something about the nature of the industry within which we work.

Why are we are still presented with a page of Bar Charts and Pie Graphs from M.S. Excel as the "interesting" parts of presentations that are supposed to be conveying information about media which is inherently non-linear in nature.

I stand very much with Tufte on this matter of making the information representation medium suit the subject matter. At the same time I have very few great examples of interesting statistical presentations. However, I now have one Brilliant one:



via via Flo and Vi-R-us

"If you put two people together in a game, they're going to find a way to fuck"

- Kyle Machulis of Linden Labs.



I was shocked today to read the news that if trends continue, it is only a short matter of time before social networking sites such as Bebo and MySpace become more popular than porn in that great interweb popularity competition. Playing follow the link, I find the same article splashed up on those holy pages of the pages of the Economist; a publication in which I most certainly put too much trust.

Fact - Porn has been with us since the beginning of time. Since people first started fucking, they have been interested in looking at each others bits.



Fact - The development of imaging technologies since the 19th Century have been driven on by the Porn industry. From Gentleman's entertainment clubs through to Victorian erotic photography, fine art, sculpture, design and finally pushing through to our digital world and even porn 2.0

So why is it looking like interest in social networking is going to outstrip the great pilgrimage to the pornsites when the day comes to a close? Is it because of all the fluoride in the water? or is it because social networking sites are infact more about making you popular, than getting off on the popular appeal of somebody else fucking somebody else. This is a chance for you to appeal to the opposite sex. For you to get fucked for free by somebody you barely know. Is Porn 2.0 actually a more clandestine version of the erotic voyeur that has traditionally been such a turn on. Look closer at the Facebook profile, and it's actually often an Ad: "I'm single, 25 years old, I like chilling out to pink floyd [i.e. I like talking mind expanding drugs, girls who disapprove need not apply], I like cooking [Yes, I'm prepared to put a bit of effort into a pre-fucking diner], Drink Wine/beer/spirit [I'll get pissed with you first to ease both our consciences]..... These subtexts which weave their underpinning to so many profiles seem innocent at first, however point the way to a new kind of disintermediated relationship. Why not meet in a bar in second life, then retire to "your place or mine?". It's definitely cheaper, but is it a cop-out to facing up to the inevitable truth: Mankind likes to fuck.