Anonymous sexual titillation drove AOL’s early chat room popularity
Evidence
There’s a popular folk theory, apparently of Freudian inspiration, that the driver of any technological advance is either sex or warfare. However exaggerated, like a broken clock, this theory is occasionally right. It was in the case of AOL, where users flocked for, if not sex exactly, then potential titillation, and who knows what might follow—much the same proffer that draws college students to frat parties. In any case, chat rooms catering to seekers of anonymous sexual titillation and flirtation were by far the most numerous and popular, so much so that over the mid-1990s, AOL became fairly synonymous with cybersex, anonymous virtual sexual encounters conducted entirely by typed messages. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 709
Categorization
- XREF: Echoes the book’s core causal claim that basic appetites, not technology features, power attention-grabbing platforms. — connects to: Four US companies competed to bring people online by 1991 and only AOL survived. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 693; Social media spaces create an anonymous intimacy that is neither public nor private — Jürgen Habermas, A New Structural Transformation of the…, 45; Internet anonymized hardcore pornography access — W. David Marx, Blank Space: A Cultural History of the…, 171 (+1 more)
Broader Connections
- AOL’s seedy reputation probably accelerated rather than slowed its growth
#expands(0.85) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 713 - Social media spaces create an anonymous intimacy that is neither public nor private
#exemplifies(0.75) — Jürgen Habermas, A New Structural Transformation of the…, 45 - Internet anonymized hardcore pornography access
#expands(0.72) — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 171