I'd like to dedicate this entry to my best friend, Casey, who was the last person I know to get a cell phone and my second-to-last friend to join Facebook. And also to John, who was always quite firmly against Facebook but finally joined up this past week.
I'm an internet junkie. I really am. I admit it with unwaivering pride. I've been blogging since 2001 - I'm not even sure it was called "blogging" then. I kept th blog on my website, having programmed and designed it myself. Now there are thirteeen thousand sites to manage it for me. I've been designing websites as a hobby since 1998 (I learnedto impress a boy, I swear) and learnd how to dismantle and assemble computer hardware for my own amusement during college.
Maybe a better title would be "computer junkie" or even "tech junkie."
Did you know I wrote my Masters thesis on how internet technology is changing the television industry? Did you know I originally just wanted to write about the internet as a whole but my advisor told me I'd be overwhelmed and needed to narrow it down... I reluctantly did so but that didn't stop me from researching extra materials. Because I am a sadist.
A lot of people resent that MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and so on have made us a lazy society. It makes us more reclusive, exclusive, and solitary. Or so they say. I happen to disagree. Completely. I know more about some of my friends than I ever did before we were on Facebook. It's given us a platform to share and interact beyond a few drinks or a cup of coffee. It allows us to be more honest. To be ourselves. Do I update on Twitter too much? I try not to but sometimes I just wanna communicate. LOL.
The most rewarding experience I've had via Facebook was meeting a cousin of mine. My mother has a ton of first cousins with kids my ae scattered all over the country. I've met just a few of them and have always regretted not knowing all of them. So i was fun to recently get all of their names and find some on Facebook. It would be weird to just pick up a phone and call a stranger, explaining I'm family, but it was far easier to send him a message on Facebook. And we have so much to talk about!
On Facebook, I can talk to 300 people at once or three people at once. I can be totally in charge of my personal "brand" (so to speak)... it's actually kind of liberating, I think.
If you know what you'e doing with it, it'srather glorious - I swear.
