Yet, as much as I loved computers and technology it was nothing compared to when I got my first computer with a modem. Before I had one my best friend had a 2400 baud modem. We would sit on the phone together and she would read X-Files Fan Fiction over the phone; though it took about five minutes for each page to load. Soon enough I was connected with AOL and over joyed at the prospect of connecting with friends online. At the time I was a huge X-Files fan and joined message boards, UseNet Groups, and even created a few websites. I had a Hotmail and Yahoo email address and would often create my own websites for friends using GeoCities. My friends and I would create our own private chat rooms in AOL or use the IM service. By 1999 I had a lot of friends that I only knew online and chatted with on a regular basis. It was a dream world for a information hungry and social teenager such as myself. This was near the beginning of what we today call social networking. It was a lot more work 10+ years ago, but functioned on the same principals.
MySpace then launched in 2003 and I joined just a few months after it got started. It was great to be able to essentially design my own webpage, have chat and stay connected with my friends all through one user interface (UI). I was already a member on Friendster, but never liked their UI and didn't have very many friends on there anyway. However, MySpace was a hit! I soon started blogging nearly every day, spent time filling out silly surveys, and commenting on my friend's pages. Then Facebook began and again I joined right away. Yet Facebook lacked the numbers and personalization that I loved about MySpace. It actually wasn't until last year that I finally downloaded my entire MySpace page and deleted my account. As I've gotten older my friends have all made the switch over to Facebook and I too followed suit.
Social networking today is an essential part of my every day life. When I get up in the morning I check my email, Facebook, and then Google Reader. When I moved to California I met a huge group of friends who I then added to my Facebook page. Doing so allowed me to put a face with a name and assisted me in learning 60 or more names. My friends talk about posts on Facebook when we meet in real life, we share links to new stories, funny videos and more! I have friends on my page from Kindergarten, people I may have never had the chance to find much less keep up with on a daily basis. Social networking has created a world where we can all stay connected and benefit from the collective knowledge.
I don't know what I would do without the Web. I'm itching for a smart phone now so that I can be even more connected. My boyfriend recently got one and anytime we disagree about something, no matter where we are, we just pull out the phone and find out the answer. Wikipedia, Google, Facebook, all of these are amazing services allow the human race to get closer to each other. Thanks to Stumbleupon I find new and fun recipes to share with friends, I see photographs and artwork, video, learn about ancient civilizations and so much more.
I never want to be an older person who has been left behind by technology. I often jump at the chance to try new products and services or at the very least read all about them. It's even more important as an information professional to be well versed in all that technology has to offer. Farkas states that "libraries should be aware of their patrons' online social worlds" (8) and I couldn't agree more. By understanding where and how people are interacting we can tailor our services to provide what they can't get online. Or we can tailor our service to provide in these online environments.
Social networking and the Web have been life changing for me. I'm excited to see what the future has to offer. How much more connected can we get? The Web is breaking down all of the barriers that once separated people. My hope is that the more connected we become the less we will tolerate corruption in the government, senseless wars, and religious intolerance. Where we once read about conflicts in a paper about distant far off people, we now read blogs from people who are directly involved. These people are our friends on social networking sites they are real and not so very far off anymore. It's a lot harder to ignore the atrocities happening in our world when it is streaming right into your living room.
Wow, Erin! It sounds as though you have a long and intimate history with social networking. I think that gives you a valuable perspective on new tools, as you can compare them to what worked or didn't work for you about what you've used in the past. If you could take all your friends with you, would you go back to MySpace now in preference to Facebook?
ReplyDeleteYou know that's a hard question as there are aspects of both that I enjoy. I think the only feature from MySpace that I would bring over to Facebook is the ability to customize your profile. While I know a lot of people complained about overloaded pages I thought it was neat to see how people expressed their personalities through their page designs. I might also bring back some of the early simplicity that MySpace had. It was really simple to create a blog, subscribe to your friends etc.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you have done a great job of keeping up with social media.
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