My first experience with the Internet is definitely not a memorable experience. I do know, however, that in sixth grade I did not write a paper because I could not figure out how to get the letters to capitalize or how to get those crazy symbols above the numbers. The accelerated reader program may or may not have required the use of the Internet. Again, I don’t remember. In fifth grade we were taken to the computer lab occasionally and looked up websites that we were told to find. I think it was about wildlife. In sixth grade, my gym teacher would always bring her laptop to class and all my friends and I would play on it during lunch. We always got on “the N” I think. We got to create an avatar, which was really the only reason I had anything to do with it. Ever since, it is really the only reason I sign up to do anything. If I went out and bought an X-box right now it would be so I could create myself an avatar. For some reason I like making things look like me. Seventh grade is probably my most solid memory of Internet use. It was mainly to play flash games like the helicopter game and look up song lyrics.
My dad had one of those e-machine computers. That was pretty cool for a while, but he kept it in his room. One time my step mother used the Internet to call my step brother when I was in fourth or fifth grade. It was really weird. “Okay, great.” I said, “Now we have a giant phone.” I fell for those ad claiming that you just so happened to be the ONE THOUSANDTH visitor and that I should claim my prize as soon as possible. It is really a wonder I never gave anyone a virus. I remember complaining to my dad that I couldn’t really do anything because I didn’t have an e-mail address. I acquired one of these in eighth grade via AOL. America On Line. I was the coolest person ever. AOL and I had a love/hate relationship. I loved it. It hated me. The dialup sound was frightening but tolerable. I soon became a fan of AIM (once I had a friend to talk to). I usually had to schedule my Internet usage around my dad’s work and whenever I could tilt my screen away from my keyboarding teacher. I just want to go on record saying that the name of that class is very misleading. I thought we were going to learn to play thin, electronic pianos.
I had always wanted to get a computer for myself, but the reasoning against it was the Y2K scare. But five years later my mom finally broke down and we had ourselves a twenty inch screened computer. We had a youth pastor whose name was Scott. He seriously has to be one of the greatest guys I know. We would all gather in his office and watch various episodes of Homestar Runner. Strong Bad’s e-mail was our favorite. This is where I learned the terms “Compy,” “Lappy” and “The Interweb” I still use these all the time. In fact, the device this paper is being typed on is titled “Alyssa’s Mac Lappy.”
The Internet, for me was neither strange nor frightening. It was not all that exciting and wonderful either. It was just another convenient solution. It was a new toy, a time waster, and a friend connector. I could find things faster, homework was easier and all of this while dealing with the constant urge to check my e-mail.
I eventually graduated from AOL to my dad’s new server, but I pretty much hated it. They were always changing things and it just got way too complicated. So, Yahoo was the way to go for me. Then, Myspace became the new fad and I decided to get on board once I saw my friend was a user. I wanted to see his entire profile, and I couldn’t do that without being his friend. Once my account was deleted by some unknown force [“Vengeance is mine, Tom!!!], I realized it wasn’t worth the hassle. Facebook. That is when I entered the ever loving, long-term relationship with good ‘ol Facebook. It’s almost as addicting as illegal things [so I have been told]. We’re still going strong, Facebook and I. I don not know what I would do with myself without the pokes and flairs and news feed. It’s changed a lot since the beginning, it has been very frustrating but eventually you get used to it. That is, until they change it again. But it takes care of everything: e-mail, games, pictures, music, fan pages, schools, calendar, etc. I used Yahoo up until I started here as a freshman. I didn’t like keeping up with two emails and I was not getting anything but forwards from my friends. We had Facebook for that now. Everything else was junk. So now here we are, in a land where if it takes less than thirty seconds for a page to load, we hit refresh or find something different, where all of our answers are just a click away along with pictures from last night to jog your memory because you don’t remember a thing. It’s quickly becoming a necessity. I find it absolutely stunning that my six-year-old brother doesn’t need my help to find games online or anything that a six-year-old dude would be interested in. Seriously? Are we really getting that old?
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