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It's disingenuous to compare the relative reach of AOL in the 90s to that of Twitter and Facebook in 2020. In absolute terms, both Twitter and Facebook dominate
by bezmenov 6y ago
It's disingenuous to compare the relative reach of AOL in the 90s to that of Twitter and Facebook in 2020. In absolute terms, both Twitter and Facebook dominate contemporary discourse at a scale far surpassing any company prior.
- shadowgovt 6y agoI agree. AOL had far more control over the average online user than FB and Twitter do now. The fact we even say "FB and Twitter" indicates this. In the early AOL era, one couldn't even use it to access the web.
- Apocryphon 6y agoNot to mention that the other dominant ISPs were unlikely to have TOS's that were any less restrictive than AOL's. Hell, Prodigy billed itself as family-friendly, so it was likely more censor-happy than both AOL and CompuServe.
- bezmenov 6y agoYou're still overlooking the absolute scale. How many customers did peak, monopolistic AOL have? How many collective human hours are spent within the walled gardens of Facebook and Twitter daily?
- r00fus 6y agoIt seems as if you and bezmenov actually disagree. AOL was influential online but online was not an appreciable part of the media and national discourse. So AOL was a big fish in a tiny lake. In comparison today, FB and Twitter both are megaliths that impact how the ocean currents circulate.