The Internet as a Pleasure-Principle Seductress

Chat rooms. E-mail. Mailing lists. These words are less than 10 years old. In this last decade of the 20th century, communication via the Internet has exploded in quantity. What is interesting is that in this explosion the quality of the communication has also changed. America Online (AOL) is partly to blame. More Americans use AOL than any other Internet Service Provider. AOL allows users with even its most basic account to have up to five different account names—one’s “handle” or name that appears to others in Internet communication. AOL says it does this to allow families to have different accounts for each person without having to pay for more than one account. However, within the last year, AOL has introduced a new feature that speaks to what may be a more likely explanation for this service. Now, users can change their AOL screen name in the middle of an Internet session. There even is no need to log off. If the purpose of this service is to provide additional accounts for family members, this added feature would have no benefit. Instead, AOL has tapped into a psychological process. (Of course, their user-friendly, chat-room-geared service has always made use of psychological principles—one reason it has been so successful.) In this case, this ability to change one’s name allows one to change personality styles with virtually no consequences.