First Web Assignment

            My first encounter with the internet was sometime in 1998.  Back when AOL was the big internet provider.  I was about 9 years old and entering into middle school.  At the time I had just moved to Connecticut from Charlotte, NC.  The way that everyone in my class was staying in touch and making friends was through online chatting on AOL.  At the time, my family owned at MacOS computer which was slow as all can be.  AOL was only available on the internet through dial-up services.  If we all remember back to 1998, it’s pretty well known that dial-up took FOREVER when it came to connecting.  You would always get that annoying screeching noise that would last for at least five minutes.  I would remember hearing a pause thinking that I would be connected and then cursing the computer because it would then continue to connect.  Connecting to the internet was the most frustrating thing I remember. 

            Once I was connected to the internet there were so many things that you could do.  You could check your mail, surf the internet, chat with people online, etc.  I would always chat with people from my class and stay connected with them.  The most frustrating thing was when you were chatting online with someone and then within an instant the internet was disconnected and you had to go through the dial-up process all over again.  Sometimes you wouldn’t even be able to connect again and your conversation was pretty much ended.

            Making profiles online was the cool thing to do.  You could choose what color you wanted in the background and what kind of font, text, and color of text you wanted.  It was a place where you could put information about you and quotes and sayings that you liked for your friends to see.  Those profiles were an earlier version of let’s say blogs, facebook, myspace, etc. of today.  I remember that I used to update mine almost every other week with new smiley faces and fonts that were introduced. 

            AOL later came out with a new system called AIM, which was an instant messaging system.  This system enabled you to talk to people in miniature pop-up windows and even let you enter into chat rooms to talk with multiple people at once.  Profiles were still available, but there were more features that were available to you.  Different versions would come out to the public that would make AIM more internet savvy.  For example, newer versions would have a search bar at the bottom of the buddy list window to better access the web.  Also, buddy icons were a huge improvement.  Buddy icons were little pictures that would show up in the bottom right corner of your chat window.  People who were talking to you would be able to see these little icons.   They were another way of expressing yourself through the internet.  I remember I had a fraggle rock icon and a few other cartoon ones. 

            Once Myspace was brought into the picture, AIM was pretty much blown out of the water.  No one really used the instant messaging system anymore.  My space wasn’t really the same software because there was no instant messaging program on it.  It took more of the shape of a blog.  Myspace enabled you to upload pictures onto your website and you were able to design the website however you wanted.  There were many different “skins” or backgrounds that you were able to choose from.  I remember I had a pink background with stars that would blink throughout the page.  Myspace later began to inherit viruses and hackers which lead people to not use the system anymore.

            Then along came Facebook!  What we use today and what I am pretty much addicted to.  Facebook pretty much takes everything that I have talked about and puts it all into one.  On facebook you can upload pictures, fill information about yourself, chat, post on other’s walls, etc.  Networking and finding friends is a huge use for this system of staying connected. 

            My experience with the internet has definitely come a long way in the social aspect.  Not to mention I use the internet everyday for homework, research, etc.  Hey, we even use the internet for our homework in this class and other classes.  The internet has become such an important part in our society.  In my generation, if the internet were somehow disconnected forever, I feel that we wouldn’t know what to do with ourselves.

            In comparison with Bush or Hawthorne, I feel that I am more so associated with Bush.  I use the internet more for a storing system such as the memex.  Unless I am doing some kind of research for one of my classes, I don’t really use the internet for anything other than social networking.  I store photos on Facebook and other information there as well.  Therefore, I think that Bush and I are most alike.