This was an okay, if technical look at the history of sex on the internet. I think I was expecting a more sociological approach to this high level overview. Worth a read if this is your area of interest, but not so much for a general audience.

A bite-sized overview of the history of pornography, from a pro-pornography perspective. I would not recommend the title for children, but it is easy to follow, quick to read, and clear about its advocacy for sex work and the porn industry. Author clearly did the homework.

I was unable to review this book because the review copy was not accessibility friendly. For that reason ignore the star rating; I am writing this information here because not having reviewed the book (because I couldn't read it) has skewed my review rate and means I'm no longer approved to review.

Not quite the light read I was expecting this to be. It went quite technical early on, and it really dug into the earliest versions of the internet. It seemed well-researched to me, so no complaints there. But I was expecting something else, maybe a tad more explicitly sociological. I held on until around the 40% mark and then gave up seriously reading it. I skimmed another few chapters and then dropped the book entirely.

An absolutely fascinating read on a subject most of us are curious about! Samantha Cole does an excellent job presenting the information from chapter to chapter in a way that keeps your interest but also doesn't over explain any of its topics. I highly recommend!

I really enjoyed 'How Sex Changed the Internet and the Internet Changed Sex', and I'll most definitely be purchasing a physical for my bookshelf. The layout was great, and it truly felt like reading a textbook for a class (in a positive way).

This was such an interesting read. While there are some obvious ways that sex changed the internet and vice-a-versa, I definitely didn't realize just how far back the symbiotic relationship went. I appreciated that this book also gave a generous amount of time to how the internet has impacted and been impacted by people across the LGBTQIA+ spectrum.

Great deep dive into sex and the internet. Learned so much from the early days of the internet then relived a lot of the more current information. Of course with an advance copy there is some facts and info a bit wrong but that is to be expected and corrected. Can't wait for the libraries copy to come in.

How Sex Changed the Internet was incredibly fascinating. The focus of this book was on how the developmental of the internet has been constantly changed and influenced by sex and sexuality. From online dating to incels to chat rooms to pornography, sex sells and it is always on the cutting edge of new technology and often the thing that spurns the development of new advancements on the internet. While this book was only able to provide a brief introduction or overview to each aspect of the Internet, it served its purpose in showing how very many aspects of the internet and our technological process are intertwined with sex.

Really interesting and timely for those who want to understand more about how technology influences and is influenced by people in power. It’s an ambitious work as it covers so much - I hope there will be a follow up with some more deep dive content.

3.5. This was an accessible, visually appealing read. It feels like a (very) long magazine article in that it covers many topics briefly--I expected some more in-depth examination but appreciated the amount of facts--and is interspersed with glossary boxes and photos. Parts are technical and dry, but I enjoyed learning about the history of sex and its dissemination through technology (or an interpretation of technology)--my favorites are the description of sexual content in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and an examination of today's games and the Deepfake phenomenon.

This is an immensely readable book on the history of sex and the internet. Stretching back to the earliest days of the internet to the present, Cole covers a variety of topics that highlight how intertwined the two are.

Some of the topics covered are a little shallower than others, but I'm choosing to look at this as more of a foundational text that will springboard further work since this topic is so vast that it couldn't possibly say everything there is on the topic without being at least twice as long (sex and BBS boards alone could be its own book, for example).

Thank you to NetGalley and Workman for this eARC. All thoughts are my own.

I'm a huge fan of everything that dives more in depth into our mysogynist society and how sexuality has been influenced by it. This book covers both, especially how sexuality influenced the internet in the past 50 years and vice versa— how the internet influenced modern-day sexuality.

This book had a lot of technical data and terminology, so at times I found it a little bit confusing and I had to reread the same part a couple of times, but overall I'd recommend it.

Not what I was expecting and just not for me.
This book was very technical and I found that boring. I was thinking that was going to be a look at the internet and society, it was not that.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing this eARC.

How Sex Changed the Internet and the Internet Changed Sex chronicles the history of an internet that is inextricably linked, for better and for worse, with sexual content.

This was quite a dense read, as Cole got quite granular with many topics, and the breadth of the book stretched from the very first iteration of the internet all the way up to modern day. Fortunately, most if not all of the topics covered were wildly intriguing, and I definitely left with more knowledge of the internet as I know it than I really ever thought I'd have. I especially enjoyed the ways in which Cole coupled history with poignant analysis of the actions and perceptions of humans behind the screen. I do wish that sexual content in fandom spaces had been covered within this text, but ultimately its lack of presence in the book didn't detract from my overall enjoyment of it.

This book is very informative and covers many topics related to technology, misogyny, sex and how the fact that most of the developers were men impacted the evolution of the internet. I liked the book's design because it includes pictures and definitions of many tricky concepts or unknown abbreviations and feels very interactive overall. The writing style is very accessible, and it's fun to read, even for people who are not very knowledgeable about the internet's history and functioning. The topics span from configurations of images to incels to (in)security of sex workers and how different decisions taken by the companies impacted women.
My most significant criticism would be that there were so many exciting topics, but they were shallowly explored. I was surprised every time the chapter ended because there seemed to be so much more to say and discuss on the topic. Of course, given there are so many angles to the issue, it is impossible to include everything in one book, but I would rather have fewer topics but more in-depth chapters.
I would recommend this to people who are interested in feminism and the impact of technology on women's life.

Samantha Cole has helped change my perspective and beliefs about using the internet. Although I had been suspicious about the internet and its origins, now I consider it something similar to the Marlboro Man riding into the sunlight after a steamy romance and a gunfight with a water pistol. They both turn me off.

How Sex Changed the Internet and the Internet Changed Sex brings to attention most of the dirt and filth that people could assume but then have plain, stated facts given in the most detailed orientation. Cole does well with research and her presentation is clean and crisp. Besides giving background histories of developers, provocateurs, and enterprises, she leads into the evolution of how people can deviate through legal oversights and loopholes. Constantly popping up and putting down, the internet is a full-fledged sex tool, scary for those who depend on it, and easy for those who fantasize about shopping. The web gives consumers and producers safe places, but the media's biases promote corruption and scandals.

Everybody can find love on the internet but the internet won't ever offer the same pleasure. Samantha performs well with the facts and the associated behaviors.

I don't usually read this kind of novel, but with everything going on in the world right now, I had to try it.

It's definitely an interesting read, the title says it for itself: it follows the history on how sexuality influenced the internet and how the internet influenced the other way around. It was extremely informative and I definitely recommend it if you need more knowledge on the subject Not only it educates you on sex, but surprisingly on how it also affects us on a social and political context as well. The stories are captivating and it goes straight to the point. Samantha Cole definitely did a lot of research to write this book, but I'm wondering if some elements might be biased from the ''personal experience'' point of view. I don't have any experience with sex work, but while looking through some reviews of this novel, I noticed that some readers with years of sex work experience felt the same way on the matter. This last part won't be affecting my rating of this book as I don't feel comfortable with my lack of experience on the topic, but it's still something I had to mention. Even though it's quite short, it's not necessarily a light read, I had to search up some information just to make sure I was on the right track with the author.

Thank you so much to the publishing house and NetGalley for giving me access to an advanced copy of this novel. I definitely recommend it for educational matters.

Thanks to NetGalley, the Author, and Workman Publishing Company for this ARC! This was a really incredibly fascinating read that starts with the advent of the internet and the impact sex has had on its development - the good and the bad. Some parts of this book are hard to read, but this book presents an unflinching history of sex and the internet and I learned a ton from reading this book. I had no idea so many familiar internet technologies were tied to sex but it makes a lot of sense. I also liked how this author discussed the common stigma of sex currently happening and some of the issues with sex online. A great read, and well worth the time to dive into this niche subject!

Thank you NetGalley and Workman Publishing Company for the chance to read and review this book!

I thought it was a fairly good book that has a lot of information. It really exemplifies how the internet was built up by a lot of dudes piggybacking of female labor.

I loved how the book was out together because I think that kept it from getting boring.

I have at least 2 friends I would recommend this book to!