The Internet is a way to communicate with people around
you. Everyday is a social encounter in a way, which was unheard of not
long before. I remember my first time using the Internet. I was 14
and had heard my friends talk about it. My parents decided that it was
need in the house and that day I learned about AOL instant messenger (AIM). I
spent my first day talking to my friends for an hour on the Internet. It
was great to be able to talk with people without having to utter a single
sound. As a 14 year old, I was very into my privacy and enjoyed the fact
that no one knew who I was talking to or what I was talking about.
While I talked to my
friends, I found my way on to a website that would cause me more trouble than
it would at making friends. MySpace was my world. My top eight were
the people I considered to be my closest friends. These were the people who would appear on my
page, when people clicked on me. Looking at pictures and listening to my
music was all I did with the Internet. Life was great. It wasn't
until a few years that MySpace needed to go, but when I first joined that day,
I was amazed by the possibilities to create and change my own sight to fit my
personality.
Since my first
encounter with the Internet, my use has grown to the point where I am
constantly active on it, it seems. I have the Internet with me at all
times, on my phone or laptop. When I was first on the Internet as a teen,
I was addicted to it, but now it is strange to be away from it today. I use AIM still, but only to message my
girlfriend from my phone. I current use Facebook, Tumblr and a few other
social media sites to advertise my photography and other artwork. In a
day, I sift through thousands of images and watch hours of videos, whether it
be clips of people doing dumb things around the world, television shows I might
have missed the night before, or even tutorials on photography lighting.
The Internet has
expanded to drastic measures, to the point that what you post on your wall, on
Facebook, might cost a friendship. An image of you doing a keg stand at
the party you went to could be the image your boss sees and fires you
for. When I got on the internet the first time, I never thought of how
much this would matter, but now seven years later, I worry about every little
thing that I type, afraid that the wrong person might see. The Internet
is much more a part of ever person’s life that it is the basis for how the live
and deals with the real world. Who knows what it will be like in another
ten years though.
As I figured, MySpace was a center of the world at one point in time. I experienced my first usage earlier that Matt, but it seems he is currently just as active as I am. AOL and AIM started the social aspect for my generation, and although I didn’t have expectance with these two sites I know plenty who have. MySpace however, I believe everyone of the generation has the same experience. Being the first social site to really take off it became an addiction to mostly everyone in the era. As Matt agreed, the ability to change the profile to match personalities was amazement to all MySpace users. Youngsters use the social sites to say the things they would normally say, although we have found that isn’t such a good thing it was a break-through while it was happening. The transfer from MySpace to Facebook brought about the same interactions as MySpace. Facebook costing a friendship is pretty accurate in the price to pay from drastic assumptions made on social sites. This has caused those who may have started off using MySpace, to no longer participate in social sites. Nonetheless social site usages are at an all time high.
ReplyDeleteYour article about your first experiences with the Internet has a lot of relatable and strong points to it. Before I get into that, it’s important to note a few minor details:
ReplyDelete1. The font size was really small and hard to read, especially the first paragraph- which is in black font- I had to highlight it to read it. Obviously, this is an easy fix but if I didn’t have to read this article, I wouldn’t because of the way it stands out.
2. (I’m glad I did read the article though.) Another minor detail, I really appreciate the breaking up of paragraphs in your article. As with anything on the Internet, this makes it easy to read.
But onto some notable points within the article, everyone our age can always relate to MySpace and the Top 8, which is good to include in any opinionated article, to keep the reader interested.
The part where you said you were amazed by the possibilities to create yourself on your own page is a really great point. Until someone actually sits down and thinks about these sort of things, I don’t think anyone actually realizes that we have created/re-created ourselves on the Internet.
You were on point when you briefly mentioned how a picture of you doing a keg stand can get you fired from a job, it’s crazy how much the world has changed because of the Internet!
All in all, this was an easy and enjoyable read but also very relatable at the same time, which is a good mix when writing a blog.