How it all started

The internet obsession.
For me, it all started with a blog. Well, e-mail, really, but the real fascination came when I somehow got going writing a blog. It was wonderful. I could write things, like I always did, but instead of those things being just for me, my friends could read them. They wanted to read them.
I lived for the comments; for the knowledge that someone out there (almost always someone that I knew) had read my thoughts and wanted to respond, had understood, had validated what I had to say. I started to read their blogs, and comment, and learned to stay in contact with people that way, the people I loved who were far away. No longer did you have to be family, willing to pay the exorbitant prices of long-distance phone bills, or a grown-up with their own e-mail account to have a say in my world; all you had to do was have an account on a blogging website!
When I first heard about facebook, I wasn't convinced. I was introduced to it on a trip to the States, right before moving back. I was hanging out in a hotel with some high schoolers who were positively dying to "check their facebook." I had no idea what that meant, but when I found out, I was not impressed. Where was the exchange of ideas, the dialogue with your friends? I made an account anyway though, to keep up with the kids I'd met on that trip.
And really, that's what the internet has always been for me. A way to keep up with (stay in touch) the people I would otherwise lose sight of completely. I have gotten used to using it in that way, for that purpose. So it really baffles me when I come into contact with people who really... don't. They just don't use the resources at their disposal. I don't get it.
My dad likes to talk about how my generation are "digital natives." I guess we are. He likes it because it means he can call himself a "digital immigrant," which is ridiculous, because if anyone's been right at the forefront of developing technology with eyes as wide with wonder as the proverbial kid in a candy shop, it's my father.
Still, it's an interesting idea. There are definitely people in my generation, though, who don't live as if they are digital natives. They just don't have to- all their people are right there, around them, and always have been. And in a way, I'm jealous. I'm pretty sure I'd happily give up my digital nativity for a security in community like they seem to have. Instead, I have somehow developed this mindset of looking for comfort and affirmation in comments and friendly notes on my wall. How much more ridiculous could life become?

over 'n out.
E.O.