A well-considered and fantastically researched cultural history of sex online, from BBS to PornHub and back again.
In broader culture, people who seek sexual gratification and fulfilment online are often caricatured as sweaty, unfuckable basement dwellers; but Cole dispels this myth by painting compassionate, insightful portraits of the broad spectrum of internet users and their predilections.
A sex-positive, culturally aware, and forward thinking book.

Overall, this book gives an interesting point of view of sex, but the perspectives would still be narrow and a bit biased. Not what I was expecting when I requested this eARC, but it turns out to be an interesting read.

This book was a fascinating read. I kept thinking how we, as a society, keep lying to ourselves about rewarding "innovators" with fortune and fame and whatnot, but how it's simply not true.

So many of our true innovators, especially internet innovators, are marginalized and penalized, either for their age, their gender, or their occupation. Learning that made me truly truly mad. I absolutely loved the humanity with which the subjects (topics and participants) were treated in this book. I also loved how the book did not gloss over gender and sexual minorities - that we learnt about how the history of sexuality and the history of the internet is shaped by our queer brethren and ancestors.

I also liked the little boxes and the little notes throughout the book - an excellent way to keep your attention and also to provide context to some of the themes/topics in the book.

Overall, I loved this book and would recommend it to everyone who is interested in the internet!

Thank you to NetGalley and Workman Publishing company for this advanced copy.

I almost didn't finish this book because it was in PDF form, but I will say that it wouldn't have translated well to an e-reader format on my phone. So I'm glad I went back and used my tablet to read it.

The design and the graphics are really well done. That said, this book felt more like a textbook than a standard nonfiction read. The content is interesting and I was particular fascinating by the rise of camgirls chapter. I also liked the discussion on censorship and how marginalized groups bear more of the impact. The information is well-researched and and clearly presented. Overall though, the presentation of information was fairly dry and technical, which made staying focused and interested more difficult.

I think someone who is interested in the most technical aspects of the internet or is more immersed in the facets discusses might find this book more compelling. I also think this will be a text that university courses would be well-served to use as class reading when discussing sex and society.

How Sex Changed the Internet and the Internet Changed Sex was an interesting dive into many aspects of-well-sex and the internet. The book takes the reader through the history of the internet as it relates to all things sex, from chat rooms to sex workers. I appreciated how it covers POC and queer sex workers, legislation, and the political and social implications of things.

The book is written well and is easy to follow if you are somewhat technical. I don't think it's for everyone, but it's a good read for anyone interested in the topic as it relates to women, tech, and/or political/social issues.


Thanks to Net Galley and Workman Publishing company for this advanced copy.

How Sex Changed the Internet and the Internet Changed Sex, by Samantha Cole, is a very informative and fascinating book.
This book covers an amazing amount of content. Beginning with how the first computers and chat rooms were invented, it goes on the describe different milestones, such as the beginnings and refining of porn sites, sex on MMORPGs, and others. It also covers important subjects, such as movements about the hatred of women (like Incels) and the introduction of legislation by the American government that made sex workers' lives harder (such as FOSTA).
Being a book about the internet, it uses a lot of slang and jargon, such as "dox" and "ASCII," but there are many helpful boxes explaining these words. There are also lots of pictures. This makes it very understandable, for all ages, which is very nice.
I wish this book had been less America centered, and focused on some subjects more or less. For example, a significant portion of this book is devoted to the plights of online sex workers, and laws and stigma making their jobs difficult and often impossible. While it is definitely important, I would have preferred less time on that and more on, for example, the double standards of huge companies. Mark Zuckerberg started Facebook by making a smash-or-pass website of his female peers, and yet now Facebook is doing its best to limit anything sex related.
All in all, I think this was very good. I would recommend it to anyone interested in sex culture online, and injustices against women.

Not what I thought it was, find it to be one sided and one opinion… as someone who has worked clubs and the sex industry for 20 years I feel the author is lacking the personal experience

This book definitely was interesting. It took a history of ideas approach where sex as a concept has both been central to innovation and censorship/restrictions. Sex has been a place to connect with other people with similar ideals or a place where female presenting humans can be and have been exploited. Overall interesting

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the advanced copy.

This is an ambitious exploration into how sex has led the way towards the development of internet culture as we know it. Cole chronicles the advances that modern social media was based on and the people who pushed them.
I enjoyed the focus on sex work and the highlighting of how harmful legislation is more about faux-moralising about pornography, sex work, and more broadly, femme bodies , than 'protecting the children'.

This book also speaks to the evolution of the internet itself, and how movements in sex work contributed to this.

Overall, I enjoyed the content and the focus on queer and POC sex workers, who often find themselves most at risk in our society that demeans them but will endlessly consume their work.

Thank you, NetGalley and Workman Publishing Company for sending me a copy for an honest review.

I said that I would give an honest review so here it is. This book wasn't for me. There was too much text and I didn't expect that. Honestly, I thought it would be a light read but it wasn't. We get a lot of information about sex and the internet. It highlighted important topics such as sexuality, nudes, chat rooms, video games, etc. The layout of this book is the only reason why I'm giving this 2 stars. The writing was great but this book isn't something for me but I would still recommend this if you are interested in this subject and want to know more about this.

Extremely informative book if interested in such a subject

This book was obviously very well researched and incredibly in-depth. I enjoyed how it was structured starting with the beginning of internet history, while still delving into specific topics. The history around JenniCam, live-streaming, and the continued technological improvements was fascinating in particular. The inclusion and length on FOSTA SESTA is so timely and necessary when talking about freedom of speech and the safety of sex workers. Cole’s narration throughout was incredibly empathetic to sex workers, people who’ve experienced sexual abuse, and people online in general. I highly recommend this book to anyone who spends time online.

How Sex Changed the Internet and the Internet Changed Sex is a very interesting book about - you guessed it: sex and the internet. It highlighted important topics such as sexuality, nudes, chat rooms, video games, etc. Samantha Cole articulated important topics with tact and objectivity, which is always a breath of fresh air.

Extremely informative book if one's interested about such a subject.

I was interested in this book because I grew up on the internet and am interested in all of the meta aspects of it that I might have missed out on. On the other hand, this also means that I already knew a lot of the information presented in this book or it wasn't so much about the internet as technology in general. Based on the description presented by the publisher, I anticipated more analysis and scholarly discussion than the basic historical facts that were provided.

"How Sex Changed the Internet and the Internet Changed Sex" is a historical perspective of how technology, from the 1960s through today, has affected sexual perspectives, views, and proclivities. Samantha Cole presents this information in textbook format, including sidebars and popouts midway through different chapters. A lot of the sidebars were information that someone who would seek out this book would likely already be familiar with. Much of the book is devoted to standard rehashes of the history of the internet, technology, and media in general. I'm not sure how much of this is necessary to understand each topic that Cole tackles.

I enjoyed learning about the conventions, marketing, and innovations from the late 1980s to the 2020s but the author could have made an attempt at finding people who were more willing to talk about their experiences. There are a few books coming out this year, including Kaitlyn Tiffany's "Everything I Need I Get from You: How Fangirls Created the Internet as We Know It," that provide a much deeper and intimate look at some of the things that this book was likely intending to explore.

Nevertheless, depending on how this book is marketed, it may be of interest to audiences who were not around for the growth of the internet or who are simply interested in the topic. I don't think this is a book for most audiences.

Thank you to NetGalley and Workman Publishing Company for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

It is impossible to avoid sex on the internet. Especially if you're in your 30s and grew up online. Whereas we used to say "don't talk to strangers you meet on the internet!", now we're planning our weddings with our fiancees that we met on Tinder. Samantha Cole's "How Sex Changed the Internet and the Internet Changed Sex" (early galley provided by Workman Publishing) details the history of the first proto-sites and BBs to involve frank sexual conversations in alt.____ up to and including everyone joining OnlyFans in April of 2020 (and ideally if there's time for an edit, OnlyFans banning and then subsequently unbanning porn).

My one complaint, and this is unfair of Ms. Cole as there simply isn't much actual peer reviewed research on the topic for a myriad of reasons that she does go into, is that the chapter on sex addiction lumps together everything from "Touched By An Angel" to NoFap, with the obligatory stop at Incels, but does not dive deeper into the psychology of internet-exacerbated porn addiction. There is some discussion of DSM-5 and treatments, primarily the dangers of religion/shame based approaches, but some more time on this subject before jolting over to the world of murderous incels would have been appreciated.

All in all, a good read and primer for those who knew some things but not all and great starting point for those confused to how we got here.

This book was an informative and detailed history of sex, sexuality and it’s development within the realms of the Internet as well as through technological advancements. This tackled topics from the first chat rooms, to the porn industry online, sex robots, sex in video games and the first nude images over the internet. It also took a detailed look at how sex and the Internet has political and social/cultural implications. Issues around supposed sex additions and their diagnosis, revenge porn, consent and policing and monitoring pornography over the Internet were also discussed in this comprehensive read. This book gave me lots to mull over and educated me on the very beginning of the Internet age right through to modern day. I liked the nostalgia of hearing about the beginning of the Internet and the first chat rooms and webpages. For anyone interested in this topic or who wants to know about the history of the Internet and it’s implications on modern sexuality and sex, this book is a must read.

Thanks to Workman Publishing, the author Samantha Cole and Netgalley for a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to net gallery and Workman Publishing company for this advanced copy.

I was intrigued by the title and description of this book. This book explored how the internet and sex have intertwined. Throughout the book was compelling or humourous quotes which was a nice touch. As well as the quotes, I loved the graphics and design of this book.

I really enjoyed how the book address sex education and addiction. It brought light to historical figures such as sister Mary Elizabeth Clark.Other notable topics included incels and deepfakes. I loved chapter five on the history of online dating where it looked at how algorithms have influenced the world of dating. Samantha Cole has been effective in delivering complicated information whilst bringing her own stories of the internet into the book. However, I would say I did get slightly lost in the technical aspects of the book. Despite this, the acronyms description boxes throughout were very useful in understanding certain parts.