AOL marketed its early service as a cure for modern loneliness.

Evidence

AOL’s software did make it easy for users to get in touch with, and in that way effectively entertain, one another. Its designers were dedicated to making AOL a happy, friendly place—and as such perhaps something of a cure for loneliness. As one employee, Randy Dean, later put it, “We wanted [our users] to have these little epiphanies, out there by themselves typing on their computer, that they were part of something bigger, that technology did not have to be a cold place, that there was comfort out there.” Just as television had initially presented itself as bringing family together, AOL would allow those living in modernity’s increasing isolation to reach out. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 706

Categorization

• XREF: Parallel to how TV marketed itself as bringing the family together, a theme Wu develops throughout the book.