Facebook.....and Shit

Way back when, I remember when the Internet was born. Actually, that's a lie. I don't really. I was....what....15ish when it started to take off, and I just didn't care for computers at that age. The only experience of computers then was having computing lessons (I don't think the term 'information technology' was around then. Scary, isn't it). These, as far as I remember, consisted of having to type in around 50 lines of complete nonsense in the command prompt function, to see a red dot, or something else just as unexciting as that. What was the point? I hated those lessons. I could never make the red dot appear, and to be honest, I never wanted to. My brother, on the other hand, was heavily in to computers. We had a tiny 'office' at my parent's house, where the computer, together with a filing cabinet and stacks and stacks of paper, lived. My brother used to spend pretty much all his time in there playing games. The only one I ever liked was Monkey Island. That was a kickarse game, which I managed to find on eBay and can play now. Woooo! Oh, there was also Wing Commander which was brilliant. Anyway, back then, only the really nerdy, geeky, sad, weirdo children were in to computing. There were about 3 boys (they really were only boys. What was up with that? You hardly ever saw spotty, skinny, pale girls getting all excited about.....er.....see, this is why I should have paid attention to those classes. I don't know any computing terms) in my class, who were the ones who were picked on, bullied, thrown out of windows, thrown in lakes, etc, etc, etc. They had no life. No friends, and girls didn't like them. In a nutshell; computers to me meant crap lessons and nerds (and not in the new cool way, or what have you).

When the Internet arrived, rather quietly in our household, I barely noticed. In fact, the only time I remember hearing anything about this Internet lark, was when said brother forgot to disconnect one night, and we were online for...steady...the whole night! My God! Think of the phone bill! Remember that crackly sound as the modem struggled in to life? Love it. Actually I hated it.

I finally got my first email address around...1997, I think. And while in Turkey, thought I was so cool for asking people for their email address, and not their actual house address. Man, I was so totally with it.

Fast forward 11 years, and I can't imagine life - a day! - without being online.

I don't play games (much. Not even Solitaire - don't know how to). I don't gamble, or watch TV online. I guess I do whatever one else does, that is, check mail, read news, buy and sell stuff, and the ultimate; Facebook. Ah Facebook. Nevermind what I did before the Internet - what did I do before Facebook?! MySpace was good for keeping up with bands/DJs etc, but not so good for finding friends, or just...well, being nosey. I'm back in contact - no, not even contact. I have reacquainted myself with dozens of old friends, some of whom I've not spoken to in over 15 years. I can comment on their status, wish them a happy birthday, and they don't feel obliged to return the contact. And vice versa. I love it. What the point is of it all, I'm not entirely sure, but I love it.

Readers of my (very old) blog might remember this text I posted: Viewing American Class Divisions Through Facebook and MySpace. I wonder if this still applies today? "...not all MySpace users have heard of Facebook." Really? I somehow doubt it. And that was written in June 2007! Is MySpace really the place for freaks, geeks and queers? Is Facebook really dominated by goodie two shoes, jocks and atheles? I don't know. And I'm not going to conduct any kind of survey to find out. I'm just wondering. I'm sure I could Google it and find something, but my point is just how fast things change. It took me about 9 years to fully connect, but it takes just a couple of years (if that) for an online networking site to change the face of society as we knew it. What is next? I recently deleted my MySpace profile for lack of use. I now just have my Facebook. Everyone I know is on Facebook (almost literally). Facebook has virtually (ha ha) become a verb synonymous with email. As much as I laud the site, I don't have much faith in the Internet. I'm highly cynical of 'man's' creations, and think that one day, all this will tumble down, and then the shit will really, really, really hit the fan.

But for now, I am a Facebook junkie, and I'm proud of it.