Sex, Spirituality, and Google with Google Analysis
An interesting comparison with intriguing propositions and a deep conclusion
Sasha Grey said, “My goal is to be myself, to challenge stereotypes, and to follow the rules, and break them, and make new rules.” Can Google provide us an insight into the relationship between sex and spirituality? Would such an analysis be helpful for you in some strange way? Let’s finish this entertaining and educating investigation together.
While trying to find a suitable explanation for spirituality, a stray thought made me type google in the google search bar. I noticed that the word google was added to the English language dictionary in 2006. Its usage skyrocketed in a rather brief time. The graph below shows that the usage of the word has grown since the 2000s. Google searches a lot of books before drawing these graphs.
If you click on the graph for ‘Use-over-time-for’, it reveals a more comprehensive graph analysis in the Google Ngram viewer.
Spirituality is a widely used word. It has been a frequently-used word for ages. Let me digress for a moment and tell you that the dictionary definition of spirituality was not compelling enough for me. If the human spirit or soul is not defined then it is just a dictionary definition.
I clicked on the spirituality usage graph, Google Ngram viewer did its magic, and voila, the detailed graph appeared on the screen. The usage of the word spirituality declined in the 1940s but it is on the rise since the 1980s.
The usage of the word sex decreased in the 1880s but it has skyrocketed since the 1980s. This surge may have been due to the growing porn industry.
But when we overlay the three plots on a common pair of axes, we can visualize the comparison. This comparison shows how these words have been used in our books and other written materials since the 1800s.
You can see that Google is nowhere near sex — pun intended. But google and spirituality are nearer to each other but nowhere near sex. Spirituality is far away from sex. Sex rules over google and spirituality, so to speak. It can be surmised that some of the authors are investing a lot of time in writing erotica. However, fewer writers are penning texts about spirituality. It is quite obvious that Google is searching for sex more of the time than it is searching for spirituality — pun intended. Google had to invent the safe-search-option for this very reason — but you knew that already.
“Have you heard the saying, ‘sex sells’? Well, I’m the supplier.” ~ Lyra Parish ( an author )
Google and spirituality are far far away from sex. We know that all religions, spiritual traditions of the past, generally disallow lewd sexual promiscuity. Google is very strict about such matters as well.
Sexually explicit content is not allowed. ~ Google
The authors, the sex suppliers, who earn by writing about sex, are much better off than those writing about spirituality.
The bold propositions
Drawing inferences from our clever little comparative analysis, we propose that:
- Sex is linked to the survival of human species, and Google and spirituality are not that significant in this regard. This one did not require imagination.
- Writing about sex and related things can bring more money than writing about spirituality or philosophy. If you don’t like to write, you can start an adult sex toy store if you are into e-commerce. Or you can make youtube videos about the sex toys on your new channel.
- Tremendous demand for porn and sex has been a powerful incentive that led porn site owners to develop their own ad delivery networks, without any help from Google AdSense.
- Our subconscious desires, such as viewing porn or reading erotica, are stronger than our urges to meditate or discover our spirituality or our divinity.
- Oprah Winfrey speaks about spirituality but she is an exception rather than a rule. We can safely ignore exceptions like her in favor of becoming good sex suppliers.
- Google ought to consider buying some of the big porn sites, behind closed doors. Of course. Google stocks may go up in a jiffy after a rumor.
- There has to be a new field of study, called spiritual sex. Authors writing about this new subject might earn more than spiritual writers but it’d be less than sex-suppliers.
- Religions, sects, and cults should have their own sexual practice handbooks. Like the Indian book Kama Sutra. It regards sex as a spiritual practice and teaches numerous sex positions and exciting techniques.
- This proposition is pretty sober. It is a bit of advice. People should try and find actual human beings as loving partners rather than trying to find pleasure in watching porn.
- If you read all the ten propositions then I am the first spiritual-sex writer of the modern world. I did it.
Conclusion
On a slightly serious note, looking for sex means preferring physical pleasure in the objective material world, while searching for spirituality implies trying to develop a state of well-being in our inner subjective world. We have the freedom to do as we please. There are no two ways about it.
That said, in order to live a good life in a way that doesn’t burn us out or that doesn’t steer us into some vicious circle, we have to believe that living a full life implies that we have to look both inwardly and outwardly — that we have to balance our inner subjective reality with our outer objective world.