Akkam’s Razor

This new digital world is making some things happen in a much different context than they have occurred in the past.

 

Suddenly, your private dirty pictures could be shared with as many or as few people as you want, instead of just as a polaroid stuffed in the back of your sock drawer. Your erotic scribblings could be posted on a message board or blog behind your nom de plume, instead of on a piece of scrap paper or post-it note, giving you a chance to indulge in some amateur exhibitionism. Phone sex has been replaced by webcam, IM, or email sex. And no matter what your fetish, somehow, somewhere online there is a website devoted to it.

 

Do these explorations make us better or worse? Before, this kind of material was behind counters, sold at stores in seedy parts of town, or delivered in anonymous brown paper packages. In earlier times, the people who created or appeared in such things were usually societies undesirables - the poor, addicted, downtrodden, the abused. Now, they are equally likely to be the man who sits next to you on the train, the girl who works at the pharmacy, or the soccermom you see when going for a walk. Will this make things better or worse?