"Life is short. Have an Affair" seems to be just what everyone needs to hear to persuade them into having an extramarital relationship. At least it was for those 40 million users who signed up on Ashley Madison, a site that has allegedly been named the most famous for infidelity and married dating. But my question is, what about this site is so appealing? Apparently, cheating on your spouse is the new Sunday dinner. I bet those 40 million users aren't having such a great time with their new friends now that their names have been leaked all over the Dark Web.
And who are we not surprised to see as the new face of Ashley Madison? You guessed it, -- Josh Duggar. The same man from TLC's "19 Kids And Counting" who came clean this past May about his molestation of five young girls, four being his own sisters. If you haven't already heard, according to Gawker.com, Duggar had two paid Ashely Madison subscriptions, for which he spent nearly $1,000.
Duggar has released a statement about the site-leak admitting that he has been "the biggest hypocrite ever" in addition to revealing his longterm porn addiction. Prior to his recent public embarrassments, Duggar served as Executive Director of the Family Research Council (FRC), a conservative Christian organization that advocates for family values. Guess that one didn't quite work out for him. Don't worry, Josh, it seems the infidelity industry is booming.
According to the sites home page, "Thousands of cheating wives and cheating husbands signup every day looking for an affair." Ashley Madison is proud and confident in their services. The web page states "With our Affair Guarantee Package we guarantee you will find the perfect affair partner, (a package that costs over $250).” Who wants to waste their money paying for an affair? Apparently, one of the top cities where users were registered was none other than Washington D.C. - the capital of our lovely, loyal, nation.
As a millennial, as well as a member of the technology generation, I can't say I'm surprised that sites like this exist. Nowadays, there is a website for absolutely everything and it turns out finding an affair partner is now included in that "everything" category. Extremely disheartening but definitely not a surprise. I think most millennials would agree. After growing up during a time when AIM chat rooms took over our free time, I'm not surprised to see dirty, old, married, men take interest in such a site that follows the same concept however with a very different purpose.
It's not so much of shock that comes to me when reading about such scandals, but more of curiously. In this decade, anything can be sold with a little mix of good marketing and audience appeal. So what about this industry is so appealing? Or more specifically, how did Ashley Madison manage to recruit over 40 million users looking to cheat on their husband or wife? That's a pretty disturbing number of people who have committed themselves to finding an affair so much that they were willing to pay money. The website promotes itself as being "spontaneous" and "playful" with bright and fun colors and, therefore, draws in weak or miserable-at-home candidates. The "O" in their logo is replaced with a wedding band, making users feel more comfortable in knowing this site is made for people like them. It also highlights on the main page how many users they have currently, which I assume updates on a timely basis. This extremely high number, reaching almost 40 million, also helps to encourage potential cheaters that they are not the only ones with this mindset and again, what they're doing is okay on this site.
The team of hackers, who call themselves The Impact Team, have revealed that 87 percent to 95 percent of the users on the site are male. So, basically, 95 percent of the site are all competing for that other, very small five percent in hopes to spice up their life with the dirty phrases they have listed on their account profile. Chances are, they never actually found what they were looking for and now the world knows just how disgusting they are.
I strongly suggest if you are so miserable at home that you resort to a paid subscription to an infidelity website, you reevaluate your very pathetic life. On the other hand, this just goes to show that anything can be made a bank-breaking business with some good marketing and a vulnerable market.
