My Digital Life

As a kid, I always looked up to my older sister and brother. If they said high-waters were cool, I sported them the next day. But high-waters weren’t cool; in fact, the latest trend was actually a new website, BlackPlanet.com. All I really knew about BlackPlanet was that I was too young to sign up. And this killed me.

Fortunately, my inquisition didn’t last long: in 2003, Chris DeWolf and Tom Anderson created Myspace.com, which was originally intended to be a web hosting service. Myspace became increasingly popular during my seventh grade year in 2007, and even though I was younger than the minimum age to sign up, I HAD to create a page. Everyone else was doing it, so I wanted to do it too.

After creating my account, I found a basic layout and wrote a simple paragraph about myself, including where I’m from, my real age, what school I went to, etc. As I started to get more friends, I couldn’t help but see what their pages were like...

Just a little taste of what HTML codes look like and
the madness I put myself through...

Here’s where the obsession began. I wanted my Myspace page to look as cool as some of my other friends’ pages did, so I StARtEd TYPiNG liKE ThiS and learned the different HTML codes for scrolling text and fancy letters. Eventually, I even learned how to make my own layouts. Hours, sometimes days, were wasted on creating the perfect page; after all, my Myspace page was a reflection of myself... Or at least what I wanted myself to be. I thought the better my page looked, the cooler I would look. Apparently other people shared the same mindset as me because it wasn’t long before people were lining up for me to makeover their pages. I guess it’s safe to say that my Myspace page represented my alter ego: the Shawnee that was charismatic and confident. Talking to cute guys was wayy easier from behind a computer screen.

The more time I spent on Myspace, the more I realized that the green, flashing, online icons were slowly disappearing. Where did everybody go? :(

...Facebook.

Apparently, more people than I thought agreed that Myspace
was wack.

I didn’t think the end would come so soon, but unfortunately, Myspace had become a thing of the past like plaid shorts. It was officially deemed “LAME,” and since I wasn’t lame, I had to keep up with the trends...

So I created a Facebook account during March of 2009. For those who don’t know, Facebook was created by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004. Initially, the website was only for college students; however, by 2006, anyone with an email address was able to sign up for Facebook.

An old Facebook picture. Yeah I thought I
was the stuff...

Now that I had a Facebook, I realized that I couldn’t pimp out my page to make it different from other peoples’ pages. Instead, the pictures, comments, and status updates that I posted now shaped my image, so naturally I began to make my life seem a lot more interesting than it was by posting a ton of pictures that made it look like I was living it up. My mindset quickly became focused on getting the most likes and comments on a picture or post. Likes=popularity=something every high schooler wants.

Junkie. A smartphone and a Facebook Mobile App later, I officially became addicted to social networking. At least with Myspace, I could only access it from home. Now, I could get on Facebook from anywhere that I had a signal, which meant updating my status everyday before, during, and after school. It also meant creeping on other peoples’ pages whenever they posted new pictures to see if their lives seemed better than my own. Facebook was like crack: I couldn’t go more than a few hours without it.

Soon enough, Facebook had become a household name... Literally. Not only did my parents join Facebook, but so did my grandma. She didn’t even know how to say it; she kept calling it “Spacebook.” Nonetheless, it didn’t take long for my parents to start commenting on my posts, which is the complete opposite of cool... So now what?

FILTER EVERYTHING! ...And meanwhile try to find a new website... I couldn’t keep posting the usual statuses with curse words and everything. My mom would just comment, “Smh... That’s not the lady I raised.”

Finding a new website turned out to be harder than I thought. I couldn't just break up with Facebook; we had been together for over two years! Not to mention, I dreaded the fact that I would have to create a new profile and start following people and gaining followers. On Facebook, I already had my 800 friends, so Twitter was for the birds...

My latest Facebook and
Instagram picture

Since I couldn’t get into Twitter, finding a new website didn’t work. I just had to stick it out with Facebook. After being more conscious of the things I posted, I began to realize why my parents kept nagging me: they didn’t want me to be like “Westend Babysus” or “EnergizerBunny Tolbert” and come off as uneducated. Facebook was supposed to be a reflection of myself, not someone who I wanted to be. I came to the conclusion that if someone really has an interesting life, chances are they’re too busy living it to let everyone know what they ate for dinner.

So that’s what I’m doing: I’m living my life. I still occasionally update my Facebook page with pictures, but my goal isn’t to look cool. I want people to see the real me and not just some facade, therefore, I am more aware how people may perceive the things I post on the internet. My Myspace page wasn’t a real representation of Shawnee; it was some other chick. If people don’t go using that timeline feature on Facebook, then they’ll see the real me who is just your average college girl. Although I don’t use Facebook as much now, I do use Instagram, but I’m definitely NOT addicted to it like I was with Myspace and Facebook.



Sources:
http://www.randomhistory.com/2008/08/14_myspace.html
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/business/2011/06/myspacefb/38708/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/jul/25/media.newmedia