a little of my internet history

My discovery of social media coincided with the death of my mother. Of course back then I don’t think it was called Social Media, not yet. My first foray into internet communication came by way of AOL and that obnoxious dial up modem crackling through the room. I loved it when it first came out and it really wasn’t until AOL that I discovered the internet. It was only basic email (however there was nothing basic about email or internet back then as to me it was simply amazing), and internet search bars. Instant Messenger was another program I began to use with regularity between friends and family but in time I would lose interest in it when I could just as easily make a phone call and be spared the aggravation of slow modem speeds or random disconnect.

 

Then came Napster and our new ability to download songs for free off a network, songs that came right from complete strangers computers. It was the first time, that I knew of, where you could send a message to a stranger, not that I ever did but I took note.  

 

So then I discovered the new MySpace and not too long afterwards YouTube. I think it may have been Anna who sent me the link to try MySpace and when I did it took things to a new level. MySpace was cool and unique as far as what you could do— post pictures, movie clips, upload songs that would automatically play when someone opened your main page. Those were the things I liked most. I began to use YouTube to upload my edited skits and video clips, long files that were too big to send for normal email gateways. Now I could copy and paste each video clip url from YouTube and send that as a lightweight email to my friends and family. I became aware of the social element or interaction that MySpace opened up. Old friends from high school and current friends of mine, my sister or my brother began sending friend requests. It was really cool, reconnecting to the past but by the same token, tied to the present. It was just all new incredible software at the fingertips of everyone everywhere.

 

In 2009, sometime in the early spring, Facebook was the new man in town. My friends on MySpace began jumping ship to Facebook. They raved about this “new MySpace” and how better it was than anything else. I ignored it. I liked MySpace. I even created a MySpace page for our old radio station, 102.1 and uploaded old video from the studio camera and sound bytes of our shows (by 1997 we were recording all our shows on to 35 millimeter tape). However Facebook was dominating this “social media” battle (this was about the first I ever heard the Social Media term although I’m sure it was coined through AOL) and less and less people went on MySpace. And though I never cancelled my account (even now I can no longer remember my account information and passwords) I said what the hell and I signed up for Facebook.

 

Within minutes of signing up, a half dozen people were already friend requesting me. I barely had time to catch my breath. On and on it went, the MySpace friends were there, more old friends, classmates and old girlfriends (this was kind of weird but more on that later) family, even bullies and kids who never liked me or so I thought. Wow. It was insanity. Everybody was on there. There were plenty of things that were silly too or that I did not understand, things like the poke, the common friends suggestions, the apps, even the like option was a little disturbing. For example, if a friend announced that their relative had cancer, suddenly there would be a dozen Likes beneath the comment. The status update, in its infancy was harmless enough when people let Facebook world know what they were doing— vacuuming, eating, walking the dog— in time world politics would overtake the simple novelty of eating cupcakes and boiling noodles. It was just like this big explosion in the beginning, when it was innocent enough and fun. In a couple of days I probably had a hundred “friends” or so.

Then by 2012, with my life spiraling out of control, I introduced my drinking to Facebook.