One of the secrets of the internet is that a large — if not the main — part of traffic is made up of porn. In general, in the early days of the internet, it was porn that introduced economic elationships. And that, in turn, allowed the internet to become in some sense a part of our life.

Those in mood the can read this analysis written 15 years ago and approximately picture the amount of porn on the internet. But we’ll try to understand what’s happening on the internet in this and related matters.

We [in Armenia] differ because, for example, the spread of porn in Armenia is not only morally condemned, but also criminally prosecuted. On the other hand, the Criminal Code has never been an obstacle for our society. Moreover, the internet provides the opportunity to avail of foreign blessings. It’s already an old but true story that it’s people in Armenia who search the word “porno” in Google the most. You can see the figures provided by Google since 2004 in the table below. 

For years, we left the Albanians, Turks, and Georgians behind. Even the Paraguayans couldn’t endure our zeal. But something began to change in recent months. In the last three months, we began to cede our position. Unexpectedly, Mongolia jumped ahead; Turkey, likewise.

What’s happening? To make definite assessments, undoubtedly, is difficult. But in internet stats, Armenia always exhibits eccentricities. One of these is that the world’s biggest porn sites cede their positions in Armenia to the press.

If we look at the stats for last month’s visits in Armenia, according to Similarweb, we will see that at first, everything looks normal: social networking sites, YouTube, Google. It’s like this in the whole world. 

But then here [in Armenia] come the news websites. The first “adult” website appears only after four local media outlets — and in 25th place, to boot.

For example, in Germany, which is known for its impartial journalism, websites about people who fix pipes and about pool cleaners appear more often than the famous Spiegel.

In the UK, the Daily Mail tries to compete with porn. But everyone knows that the content of Daily Mail doesn’t differ that much from porn anyway.

The observations can continue like this. And we can reach one conclusion: in recent months, we’ve become so politicized that the press is occupying porn’s place. Taking into account the upcoming elections, we can assume that the trend will continue, and the public will give itself over even more to news and expert analyses, forgetting its basic instinct. 

Is this good or bad? We don’t know yet. This is a something new in human history. Let’s closely monitor the situation. One thing is clear: a society giving itself over to politics doesn’t contribute to its population growth.

Samvel Martirosyan

The views expressed in the column are those of the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of Media.am.