13 Apr Online Dating Special (pt 2): The Cheaters, Ashley Madison, AOL Screen Names, Murdering Monogamy, Pandemic Affairs, Flirty Fembots
How the Times Have Changed
This week I wanted to explore how the inception of online connections changed the trends in monogamy in the 2000's through present day.
So - Since the inception of chat rooms, the internet became practically a breeding ground for naughty behavior. We quickly learned - in the 90's when we started to have the ability to chat and email with others that the definition of infidelity needed to be redefined to include consideration for online relationships. I remember this shift happening and a lot of conversations around it - like storylines on prime time tv which quickly became fodder for a like your Sally Jessie Raphaels. Do you remember this Amanda?
AOL in the 90's I remember was this insane space to connect suddenly with anyone and it was the wild, wild west. There were no restrictions - I mean, Amanda, you have seen PEN15 - this was real. Parents had no idea that this was like a cesspool of potential stranger danger and most kids (myself included - particularly coming from a relitively sheltered upbringing) had literally no concept of this new weird world around them. My sister Stephanie would kill me if I didn't mention this story. So in 1996 Swingers the movie rose to widespread popularity when I was 16 (BTW doesn't hold up) - it was also when AOL chat was sweeping the nation and we were all setting up our screen names. So I chose Swinger as my handle after this trendy word and AOL gave me some assorted numbers since there were already some “Swingers” - So I was Swinger689. Naturally from the Midwest in the 90's and very theluckydate dejting naive we really had no idea that I basically had the ultimate chat name to get propositioned and had no idea that Swinger also was some other more sexual meanings.