NYT: Introducing Outdated Technology to Old People

I stumbled upon this New York Times article yesterday and was like, yeah, duh.

People have been using the internet as a tool for sex since the very beginning. In fact, the rapid growth of high-speed networks can be partially attributed to demand for streaming pornographic content and live video chat. The NYT takes an interest in the very most basic tools for the exchange of sexual content: craigslist, a text-only, utilitarian website which is basically an online format of the classifieds at the back of a newspaper. There is nothing sophisticated about craigslist, and while that may be the reason for its popularity, other websites and information technologies allow users to exchange richer media such as video and high resolution images. Welcome to 1997, NYT. I hear that you can use the computer to send electronic mail that arrives almost instantaneously. That will they think of next?

Print may be inviting its own end.

Although sex is solicited online in many places — legally and otherwise — the Casual Encounters listings are a major hub, offering to do for casual sex what the rest of the site does for no-fee apartments, temp jobs and old strollers.

Like bathhouses and sex clubs, the Casual Encounters section caters to the erotic underbelly of society, where courtship gives way to expediency and anonymity is a virtue (or at least a turn-on). The section was introduced in late 2000 and is available in all cities served by Craigslist, for users gay and straight, male and female. The ads range from prim to raunchy; a good number of people include photographs of precisely what they have to offer. (The site has a policy against posting pornographic pictures, but it does not seem to be enforced very vigorously.)