Commentary on Ashleymadison

“Life is short, have an affair” is the slogan for the website AshleyMadison, which is an extramarital dating site established in 2001. The business, AshleyMadison, connects married users to secretly have an affair through this social networking service and claims itself as “the most successful website for finding cheating partners”(Avid Dating Life Inc. ). The website has rapidly grown in popularity in the last couple years, reaching an anonymous user base of 16,350,000 people recently. However, AshleyMadison has drawn huge criticism from the public, pointing the unethical purpose of the site. Critics said the website can directly or indirectly harm families and relationships, consequent to adulteries committed. The effects of modern digital media perpetuates through websites like AshleyMadison, where people’s lives are altered and socially acceptable practices walk the fine lines of contemporary moral philosophy. The mass adaptation of Internet has changed the world tremendously. It links millions of people in this virtual space and turn the world into a “global village”. People communicate and share their views via Internet, which is also the most fast-growing media now. By embracing this new system of networks, people change their ways of thinking, their lifestyles and forms of their communities (Turkle). The Internet enables us to connect with each other through cyberspace; and it has already been a daily routine for most of the people in developed countries nowadays. AshleyMadison is an example of a social network platform. The company claims that they are the best extramarital relations website for providing customers with real opportunity and high personal privacy in a legitimate way. The company defines their potential users as married men and women. These people can register anonymously on the site and hookup with other people. Ashley Madison differentiate their website from other social network services by providing a “underground” channel