This is the thesis of Samantha Cole’s latest book, How Sex Changed the Internet and the Internet Changed Sex. Cole delves into the history of the early internet to demonstrate how sexual communities and content were there on the network from the start and had a significant impact on how the internet today approaches issues of identity, community, and consent. Even if today’s main platform firms would like to, Cole makes the point that you can’t understand the internet without sex, from identity play on early bulletin board sites to the advent of online pornography as a separate sector.
Note on content: This interview uses simple language to discuss a variety of sexual behaviors. Readers who find these subjects upsetting should use caution.
The argument made in the book is that sex was an essential component of the internet from the start. What makes you believe that is?
Online or not, wanting to connect with others on a deep level is just part of human nature, and the internet provided a new platform for that. People were suddenly free to adopt any identity they desired. They had the ability to adopt personalities that were distinct from who they were when not at their keyboards. They were able to communicate in ways they had never done before. That almost instantly branches out into sexuality for a lot of folks.
