So long, social media!
Social media.
You know, I remember it in its infancy, back, way back in the early 2000s. It was something I wasn't entirely into. For me, it was just as simple as going onto an AOL chat room or instant messaging and talking to whomever I wanted to talk to. Once I started seeing AOL Homepages, I was a little taken aback. I didn't know about making web pages. All I knew was about searching for them. Sure, I played along, if it meant more online friends...preferably girls. But, it wasn't my bag. Then, I got a taste of how powerful the Internet could be when I got a taste of the T1 line. Dial-up? Who needs that? In fact, who needs AOL? Instant messenger was the way to go. But, still, nothing on social media, really. Who'd have thought that after a decade of being exposed to it, from college to life outside the school, I would finally give it all up? Who'd have thought, if they knew me, that I would say so long to what had become my best friend and my worst enemy on the keyboards and servers of the world? Who'd have thought it? No one. Not even me. However, nothing lasts forever. Especially when your "friend" goes from "enemy" to "mortal enemy"...in a way.
In the beginning, there was me in front of a computer looking around the Internet just for kicks. Then, as I got older, I got more and more in tune with the internet. No social life can do that to you....but so can low self-esteem. Once college came into the mix, it wasn't long until I found my high school friends that went to the same college as I. I met their friends, they became my friends, and the computer rooms in the college were ours for the taking. I then caught wind of a website one of my friends and, as I learned, various others had used. It allowed for pictures, easy website creation, emails, and even a description of the person on that site. We're talking "age/sex/location" for you old-schoolers like me. Hmm...interesting. What could this website be called? I asked my friend and he said it was called, BlackPlanet.com. His reason for joining it: pick up girls. Now, being a teenager in college and starved for female attention of any kind that wasn't my sisters, parishioners of a certain age, or my mother, I was on it before I could even think straight. I then found out about its sister website: MiGente.com. BlackPlanet was primarily for Black people while MiGente was for Hispanic people. One thing was for sure though, it was hook-up city as a new form of Internet communication was on the rise. And that was my first taste of social media. It was also the first and most key reason to have social media, too: find a girlfriend. No surprise why I have to say goodbye...
I remained on BlackPlanet and MiGente, searching the pages for girls that fit my criteria. Yea, I had a criteria back then. Somebody's shallow, yes? Anyhoo, if you lived in the Bronx and were born in 1982, I was all for ya. Unfortunately for my shallow, narcissistic, nature, the girls were more shallow than I. It was at this time I developed the ego I had tried to avoid having for so long. I became so desperate for girls that even I had to draw a line somewhere. This has been a problem for me even to this day. But, more on that later. As time passed, I realized that if I wanted to find a girl or a woman, I had to branch out. So, while in class, do my work and look at who I could talk to. Meanwhile, you give me a computer, and looking for the lasses was on my to-do list. Remaining with AOL at the time, and running into some issues at school, I came across my first long-term girlfriend. I did it. I was diligent online. I was patient enough with who came my way. I even did some backtracking to people I thought wanted nothing to do with me. But, I struck it rich. I got a girlfriend! YES! YES! YES! YES! In 11 months, we broke up due to her career and life burgeoning in another direction. No! NO! NOOOOOOOOOO! I was devastated. I cried, whimpered, and was incredibly depressed. I then got really bitter, really angry, and really resentful. Why was this happening? What now? All these questions and no answers. All these feelings and no rest. My negative side was born. It oozed out of my pores, darkened my soul, hampered my spirit, and changed my outlook on life. As I took to telling my tale of woe to anyone I knew, I was told by another friend about these two new websites. There were plenty of girls there and as a computer user who developed his first relationship via the computer (and practically every other one after that), I had hope. What were these two sites called? Facebook and MySpace. Thus, the age of social media was about to have its Renaissance as its rise to prominence had begun. Me? I went along for the ride, of course. I'm a desperate, newly single, college boy. You bet I'm going to start looking.
Facebook and Myspace did everything BlackPlanet and MiGente did....only better, larger, more grandiose, and much more effectively. Myspace was a little more the speed of the latter two, with more issues and a heavy focus on music. Facebook, however, did a much more comprehensive job with its design. I could go on and on about Facebook and what it can do, but I'm pretty sure you know all about that. Once I logged on, I immersed myself into their worlds. For the next decade, you couldn't get me off of either site if you tried. And trust me, I tried and others did, too, although not as forcefully. After all, they could handle their social media fix. I, however, could not. I made friends from all over the U.S., got into groups about my interests, got in touch with friends from elementary school all the way to my workplace, and got used to all the nuances the sites threw at me. I blogged heavily on MySpace when the time came. I enjoyed changing my status on Facebook. I joined a litany of groups and frequented the Facebook Messenger on many occasions. But most importantly for me, I had an avenue for finding women. It went as well as one would have expected: not very. But, making contacts and such was good enough for me. Remember, I was desperate.
Through the years, I spent more time on Facebook than I did in real life. I disconnected from MySpace around the time I first met my wife. It was a nice website, but as time went on, Facebook did more and more to captivate people's attention. MySpace had slowly become a ghost town. Facebook was the way to go. And merrily, I went along. What I didn't want to admit to myself was just how isolated I was becoming. I didn't want to admit that I was losing touch with the real world and all of its wonders. At the time, the real world just wasn't fair or worth living in. It was too painful. I had no control over anything in the real world. I needed a way out, an escape. Facebook was my exit....along with video games and pro wrestling. Sadly, the exits became obsessions. When you can't see yourself knowing what to do because you like all three things, you may have developed an obsession...or two....or three. When you see yourself doing more than one of these things at the same time, you probably have developed an obsession over time. Facebook's success, however, became the start of something big.
Before Facebook jumped to the top of the charts, the search engine was reigned over the likes of Yahoo and Microsoft. In comes Google, and the Internet search now has a new king. After the birth of Facebook and MySpace, social media took another turn. This time, it was involving video media. Back then, you were lucky to get videos embedded onto websites, if not linked to a downloadable file. This time, we had a new player in town: YouTube. A website dedicated to showing videos of all those media files that used to be littered all over the Internet for download? A website dedicated to posting your own videos of you and your life? A website that would become the preeminent website for video watching of any kind? Yes, yes and yes! This became my window to the portals of my past as I looked up old television shows, music videos, fan-made stuff, and everything in between. Captain N, Popeye, X-men, here I come. However, just as Facebook brought about isolation, so did YouTube. In fact, it was so bad that more and more of my time on my computer was aimed at YouTube. I didn't care if it was old stuff, new stuff, or whatever. If it was on YouTube or could be on YouTube, I was going to search it out. No more Quicktime, Windows Media, AVI files, MPG files or the like. This was my new home away from home. And what a rough home it was....
Facebook and YouTube: my two best friends....and my two worst enemies. Through them both, I learned how to be very negative, dark, isolated, hateful, ungrateful, resentful, angry, lonely, tired, and downright mean. But, I didn't care. Life sucked for me. I wasn't happy. Why should anyone else be? I was content with all the good things that happened. But, I wasn't happy. Still, I remained with these two entities for the sheer fact that they would always be there for me. I didn't need anything else on a social level except these things. Now, I'm feeling the residual effects of all my isolation.
As of right now, I'm dealing with a bevy of personal issues from years and years of avoidance and escape. With Facebook and YouTube being the driving forces on the Internet, a measure had to be taken, and quickly. So, I have closed the door on Facebook, and all other forms of social media. I have a tendency to get too wrapped up in the media portion of it all, not wanting to unplug. It is also very distracting and deterring to my plans of getting my life on track. So, bye bye to you, Facebook.
Thankfully, I have found a way to make my time on Youtube to be more constructive these days. Myspace is no longer in my wheel-well. I have never joined Twitter, nor do I plan to. Instagram and LinkedIn are non-entities to me.
Now that there's no social media in the picture, I can get to see what I have been doing with my time and how I can turn it around for the future. Will I ever return? Only time will tell. Until then, there's only one or so reasons to use the Internet now: email, EBay, and blogging.
Fare thee well, social media. It was an interesting, trying, and very rough journey. It's time to get more social...without the media.
Facebook and Myspace did everything BlackPlanet and MiGente did....only better, larger, more grandiose, and much more effectively. Myspace was a little more the speed of the latter two, with more issues and a heavy focus on music. Facebook, however, did a much more comprehensive job with its design. I could go on and on about Facebook and what it can do, but I'm pretty sure you know all about that. Once I logged on, I immersed myself into their worlds. For the next decade, you couldn't get me off of either site if you tried. And trust me, I tried and others did, too, although not as forcefully. After all, they could handle their social media fix. I, however, could not. I made friends from all over the U.S., got into groups about my interests, got in touch with friends from elementary school all the way to my workplace, and got used to all the nuances the sites threw at me. I blogged heavily on MySpace when the time came. I enjoyed changing my status on Facebook. I joined a litany of groups and frequented the Facebook Messenger on many occasions. But most importantly for me, I had an avenue for finding women. It went as well as one would have expected: not very. But, making contacts and such was good enough for me. Remember, I was desperate.
Through the years, I spent more time on Facebook than I did in real life. I disconnected from MySpace around the time I first met my wife. It was a nice website, but as time went on, Facebook did more and more to captivate people's attention. MySpace had slowly become a ghost town. Facebook was the way to go. And merrily, I went along. What I didn't want to admit to myself was just how isolated I was becoming. I didn't want to admit that I was losing touch with the real world and all of its wonders. At the time, the real world just wasn't fair or worth living in. It was too painful. I had no control over anything in the real world. I needed a way out, an escape. Facebook was my exit....along with video games and pro wrestling. Sadly, the exits became obsessions. When you can't see yourself knowing what to do because you like all three things, you may have developed an obsession...or two....or three. When you see yourself doing more than one of these things at the same time, you probably have developed an obsession over time. Facebook's success, however, became the start of something big.
Before Facebook jumped to the top of the charts, the search engine was reigned over the likes of Yahoo and Microsoft. In comes Google, and the Internet search now has a new king. After the birth of Facebook and MySpace, social media took another turn. This time, it was involving video media. Back then, you were lucky to get videos embedded onto websites, if not linked to a downloadable file. This time, we had a new player in town: YouTube. A website dedicated to showing videos of all those media files that used to be littered all over the Internet for download? A website dedicated to posting your own videos of you and your life? A website that would become the preeminent website for video watching of any kind? Yes, yes and yes! This became my window to the portals of my past as I looked up old television shows, music videos, fan-made stuff, and everything in between. Captain N, Popeye, X-men, here I come. However, just as Facebook brought about isolation, so did YouTube. In fact, it was so bad that more and more of my time on my computer was aimed at YouTube. I didn't care if it was old stuff, new stuff, or whatever. If it was on YouTube or could be on YouTube, I was going to search it out. No more Quicktime, Windows Media, AVI files, MPG files or the like. This was my new home away from home. And what a rough home it was....
Facebook and YouTube: my two best friends....and my two worst enemies. Through them both, I learned how to be very negative, dark, isolated, hateful, ungrateful, resentful, angry, lonely, tired, and downright mean. But, I didn't care. Life sucked for me. I wasn't happy. Why should anyone else be? I was content with all the good things that happened. But, I wasn't happy. Still, I remained with these two entities for the sheer fact that they would always be there for me. I didn't need anything else on a social level except these things. Now, I'm feeling the residual effects of all my isolation.
As of right now, I'm dealing with a bevy of personal issues from years and years of avoidance and escape. With Facebook and YouTube being the driving forces on the Internet, a measure had to be taken, and quickly. So, I have closed the door on Facebook, and all other forms of social media. I have a tendency to get too wrapped up in the media portion of it all, not wanting to unplug. It is also very distracting and deterring to my plans of getting my life on track. So, bye bye to you, Facebook.
Thankfully, I have found a way to make my time on Youtube to be more constructive these days. Myspace is no longer in my wheel-well. I have never joined Twitter, nor do I plan to. Instagram and LinkedIn are non-entities to me.
Now that there's no social media in the picture, I can get to see what I have been doing with my time and how I can turn it around for the future. Will I ever return? Only time will tell. Until then, there's only one or so reasons to use the Internet now: email, EBay, and blogging.
Fare thee well, social media. It was an interesting, trying, and very rough journey. It's time to get more social...without the media.
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