Social Software Tools and Me: A History

I was first introduced to the World Wide Web when I was in junior high school.  My mom worked for the telephone company and we were able to get an Internet connection quite easily (and later participated in Beta testing "DSL").  I didn't start experimenting with the Internet until I started high school.  Of course, the first thing I signed up for was a Hotmail account for email and then soon after I joined the throngs of people on AOL Instant Messenger.  I quickly started making online friends from all over the country and the world, while keeping in touch with my local friends, as well.  I would spend evenings on the computer joining various chatrooms to discuss movies, TV, and popular culture.  I also was an avid fan of Yahoo! Games and would chat with new people while playing pool or chess or checkers.  Since I am a very socially shy person, I simply loved being able to easily meet people.

Friends in college showed me Friendster, which is no longer a social networking site but a site for online social gaming.  I honestly did not take this social networking thing serious and set up a Friendster page with the fictitious biographical information from Flashdance and uploaded, not a picture of me, but Suzanne Sommers from her "Thigh-Master" days.  I thought it was a complete and utter fad and hardly was involved.  But, then... Myspace came along.  For some reason, I found Myspace to be more "real" and I immediately joined with my friends.  Using Myspace, I found friends on campus, friends from high school, and could even "friend" my favorite band.  I road the Myspace wave until after I graduated college.  Just before I graduated, this new site called Facebook launched.  I knew people who immediately joined, but still kept their Myspace accounts, so I never felt the need to move to another social networking site.  Finally, my arm was twisted enough that I created my Facebook account.  I don't think I would be keeping in touch with the majority of people I have "friended" on Facebook.  I have been reunited with friends I new from elementary school.  I've easily friended other students I've met through SJSU SLIS classes.  I have also friended people I only knew through World of Warcraft.

In college, I was introduced to online journals and I started my own Xanga page.  I wrote about my daily life and about interesting things I found online (pictures, videos, games, etc.).  I connected with people with similar interests and even kept in touch with my friends from high school who attended different colleges.  I kept my Xanga journal until a friend of mine sent me an "invitation" to join Livejournal.  I still have my Livejournal and continue to write about my life.  Through the many Livejournal communities, I have interacted with people who share my interest in movies, games (like World of Warcraft), TV shows, and music.  Through these communities, I have met friends who live halfway across the country and the world.  I have shared my personal thoughts and opinions, life events (both happy and tragic) with an online community which does not necessarily know my real name.  Very recently, I decided to turn my attention to blogging (when our week on blogging starts, I will certainly provide my thoughts on blogs vs. journals) and created my own cooking blog.  On this blog, I write about my experiences in the kitchen and cooking for me and my husband.  While I don't know if many people read my blog, and I certainly didn't create it to make money, I love being able to write about my passion for food and cooking.

I certainly cannot say that I've tried everything, when it comes to social software tools.  Only through SLIS, have I tried Google Docs or Delicious.  This semester was the first time I have given Google Calendars a shot, which allows me to share and integrate my calendar with my husband's.  I now have learned that, if I wanted to, I could share my calendar with my friends and family so that we can coordinate getting together without interrupting our various schedules.  I certainly can say, though, that without social software tools, I have been able to adapt quite easily to taking a Masters program which is completely online.  I also think that with the experience I've had, I am able to adapt much more easily to new social software tools and will help me evolve as our online world does.