Recently, the NYTimes had an article on a website whose purpose was for users to track, manage and discuss their net worth (www.NetWorthIQ.com, "NWIQ"): http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/13/net-worth-obsession/.
Perhaps what is most glaring about this article is that the information is both incredibly fascinating and incredibly socially inappropriate. Discussing your net worth is often considered tacky and even downright rude, but the ability to do so anonymously online offers the users of NWIQ the ability to publicly gloat or despair without social ramifications.
What is most fascinating about this is the fact that having a forum to discuss such socially inappropriate issues may then change society such that the inappropriate becomes appropriate. The silent majority is given a voice. The hidden minority is given a face. The pink elephant is spotted and society moves and changes. One potential example of this may be cougars, older women in relationships with younger men.
Cougars are a widespread social force. They inspire TV shows such as Cougar Town. Prior to Cougar Town, there was cougardate.com, founded in 1999. Before this, there were reports of older women and younger men, but a few superficial searches on the internet indicate that relationships between older women and younger men were a bit taboo, but more importantly, uncommon and noteworthy. With sufficient discussion of the relationships between older women and younger men, such relationships may cease to be taboo.
One possible model of how the internet changes social behavior: the internet allows for the tail end to aggregate in a public and communal fashion. Over time, enough users use the service such that the tail end becomes the majority all the while becoming louder and louder. That majority becomes the mainstream and conversation slowly dies out as the phenomenon becomes mundane. Cougar Town may be successful because it hit exactly the right moment of social transformation between the taboo and the mundane.
Examples include discussions on corporate partnership profitability by "American Lawyer," legal gossip by AbovetheLaw.com, banking salaries by websites on banking, or the problems of women in relationships with wealthy men on Dabagirls.com. Other less savory examples may include socially condemned behavior: incest, white nationalism, pedophilia, polyamory, swinging and homosexuality are the most glaring examples.
More examples have existed and more may be yet to come. The internet can be incredibly effective at destroying restrictive and protective taboos alike.
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