Comments about ‘What do Utahns Google? Answers may come as surprise’

Isn't it great to be inquisivive sand open minded. Nice ol' well-balanced Utah shows how.

Interestingly Utah came out as the No. 1 sub-region (in U.S) for Googling "How to commit suicide", but none of the top 10 cities were in Utah.

I just went to Google Trends and tried the terms Davidson's report claims Salt Lakers are searching(i.e., nude). What I found was that SLC was not on the top ten list for these questionalbe searches. As usual, Davidson has put out a misleading article.

The author didn't do enough research on this issue because Salt Lake City isn't really #1 in most of the categories for all the cities in the United States. For example if you go to Google Trends and search on "mormon" and select on the United States it makes it appear that Salt Lake is the #2 city for this search term yet if you click on the Utah region it shows Salt Lake as #5 just within our state. Doing the same for "nude" and "boobs" you'll find the same kind of results showing that St. George and Spanish Fork search more often for these terms than Salt Lake. So when it lists Salt Lake as #1 in the nation for the term, I think it may be excluding smaller cities (such as St. George and Spanish Fork) in the results.

I'm surprised that so much of the article (about 100%) dealt with the idea that the light/dark dichotomy was a result of the predominance of LDS people in Utah.

Regarding the “dark” side (internet porn), there are at least two other factors which, I must presume, also play a very important role. Namely, the very high computer literacy and usage within Utah (usually ranked as one or two in the nation) and the very young average age of the state, the perennially youngest in the country.

Between the higher than average ability to access internet porn and the higher than average percentage of people whose raging hormones would tend to drive them to use that accessibility for some sexual gratification via pornography vicarious though it may be. Consequently, for those reasons alone, the Google search rankings ought to be no surprise at all.

In order to keep my children safe, I automatically assume that everyone I meet is addicted to porn and is potentially a child molestor. That is why my children are rarely left alone with others, especially men.

As a method to monitor internet use, you could have mentioned checking the internet browser history. That will let you know exactly which sites your computer has visited. It is a great tool to monitoring youthful inappropriate viewing.

I do not trust Google. This is the same company that censors itself at the behest of communist dictators and selectively censors conservative political messages on YouTube and in it's ad space while unapologetically allowing terrorist, leftists, and other anti-US messages openly and freely. Who can confirm these numbers? Who checks Google to see what they're doing and why? There is no checks and balances here. Google says they don't do anything to hurt or harm. Well guess what, I don't believe everything just becuase someone says it is...especially from someone who's "fruits" has shown such poor decisions in the past.

Let's be realistic here about what these data mean. That Utah has a problem with pornography is only one of many explanations! For instance, Google is a curiosity website. People go to Google to get information that they do not already have. So you could realistically make the argument that Utah is actually the least "sexed-up" state on the web (i.e., people are going to Google for porn rather than to porn sites for porn). My hunch is that hard-core addicts do not start out every peek by going to Google. So while this article paints Utah as being on the dark-side... it could also be that they are really the most naive. So until alternative explanations can be ruled out, we had better wait to draw conclusions. As they say on trends.google.com: the service is intended to be "interesting and entertaining" but not something sufficiently accurate to draw conclusions (i.e., don't "write your Ph.D. dissertation" on it). Readers be warned: there is more than one way to interpret these data! The article only portrays only the simplest story, but not necessarily the right story.

The proverbial icing on the cake: He urges adults to help each other by searching through browsing history? How disturbing!

I have a theory for why Utah may be higher in some of the 'darker' searches on the Internet.

In most of the United States, the acceptance of pornographpy is considered 'normal'. Even this article said it. Where society sees pornography as 'normal', a 'normal' person would be signed up for their favorite sites. They would have shortcuts on their web browsers and if they wanted to go to another site, they would simply go from their favorite to an advertised site that interested them. Therefore, they do not need to do searches or use a search engine.

In 'good old Utah', pornography is not considered 'normal' and is not commonly and openly accepted. So... a person wanting to view pornographic images would have to do a search each time to link into their favorite site. Thus bypassing a record being kept in the addresses of their web browser (imagine a wife looking for www.xray and www.xxxsexxx pops up as a suggestion to finish the address). By going through the search engine, a porno addict can more easily hide their tracks. Since it isn't 'normal' why would a person want it in their favorites?

If parents aren't willing to help out with questions of nature, kids are naturally going to seek out the answers.

I wish I was surprised by this report. I know too many individuals with sexual addiction issues in the church. I am convinced that sexual addiction starts with curiosity and repression.

The number one reason male students at BYU go to the counseling center is for sexual compulsion. The number one reason female students at BYU go to the counseling center is for eating disorders. These are real problems that need to be confronted.

The findings could be spun as Satan working harder to destroy the church.

What makes for a better story? New York City has the highest search rating for porn or SLC has the highest rating for porn? Yeah...someones just looking to spin this to make a story out of it. You can make numbers say anything you want.

I know that we NoMos are responsible for everything bad in Utah. But to reach #1 for "boobs" means we've got to be getting some help from the other side of the divide.

Oh please.

Not only is this not PhD dissertation-quality, it's not even acceptable research for a high school paper. YOU CANNOT draw conclusions without correlating the searches. It's bunk, it's bad science, and it's designed to slander a city.

The U psychologist who tries to prop up the bad science should have her tenure pulled. This is so bad, it's Al Goreian.

(Of course, we could just stipulate that SLC != Mormonism and be done with it.)

Move on.

I've been in recovery for a couple of years, and have found abstaining from lust to be monumentally difficult. For an alcoholic to recover, he/she needs to avoid taking a drink; but for the sexaholic, visual stimuli are everywhere, and can even be generated in the mind, making abstenance that much more difficult. Our sex-crazed world gives visual doses left and right, which make recovery for the sexaholic nearly impossible, and which wins new addicts constantly.

Before I went into recovery, I used Google as my primary tool for launching me where my lust-filled curiosity was taking me.

I should complain, too, that both Google Videos and YouTube (owned by Google) provide a near constant enticement to lascivious content in the offerings they provide in the margins. I've sent Google a request that they allow people to opt out of this soft-porn, but so far, it continues unabaited.

It does not matter whether Utahns are #1 in googling porn sites or #50. The abusive effects that result will take generations to overcome. Sadly, men think they are doing it in secret and hoping they will not be discovered. But eventually, they are. Fathers are fired from jobs, wives feel betrayed, and children at a loss about what is happening around them. Porn is a poison of the minda and the spirit. Over time, it becomes a cancer growth that must be cut out or it will kill you.

What else is google tracking that we are not aware of?

As a recent transplant to Utah, it is very apparent that accessibility is a significant issue. I have lived in lots of places in the world, and Utah has less porn (literally) lying around than just about anywhere, so if a person is tempted to peek at something, they don't go to the corner shop or the XXX video booth in the red light district, they go to the internet. And computer counselor is right that they are more likely to try to use a search engine to hide their tracks. It is still alarming to note its a problem here (and certainly some of the "light and dark" struggle is involved), but in some respects it is also a sign that the community is doing something right by keeping the smut out of the public space.