Part 2 - Technology and Me

Ahh, Technology and me. It's almost like a dog to a bone. A very big one at that. As I outlined in my first blog, computers and I have gone way back. I am proud to say that technology plays an integral role in my life. I couldn't imagine myself today without any access to any kind of technology. I can only guess as to how much more different my life would would really be.

Maybe in some parrellel universe. And where I am the captain of everything and have 100 girl friends.

So, me and communication technologies. As I greatly elaborated (and worshipped) in my first, very relevant post, I currently have had access to the most simplest source of computing to the most powerful, frame-rate crunching rig for about 14 years. I remember typing specific commands into DOS that I would quickly memorize to access my favourite programmes. Whether they be games, basic encyclopedias and even an extremely primitive version of 'MS Paint'. As the years progressed, so did obviously the power, capacity and appeal of computers. Back in the early 90's, a computer was used mostly for work purposes and rarely for leisure. I managed to break that trend quite a few times; I was pretty much the first child in my whole neighbourhood to have a copy of 'Doom' AND 'Wolf 3D', two of the first and best FPS (First Person Shooter) games of all time. It wasn't until the late 90's where I realized the great potential of communication technologies.

Fast Forward to 1997. Currently at school, every child was designated a 'penpal' either from another school or in another class if things got desperate. My penpal and I both had access to a very primitive, and slow, source of something at the time was extraordinary. The Internet. The 'dial-up' noise of numerous squeaks, buzzes and pitches still arouse my senses and delivers a fantastic sensation of nostalgia. I would often laugh at the paranoia of some people, including my parents, as they were brainwashed with propaganda from news headlines that would frequently relate the internet to something of a virus crawling, predator lurking, computer deathtrap. Ultimately, this was my first time I have had access to any form communication technology. As the months and years progressed, soon everybody you knew had upgraded communicating through to e-mail as opposed to to writing letters. It was fantastic in every way. It was simple, efficient and great fun to do. I remember after purchasing another computer in late 1999, I would send off random e-mails to my Dad just for fun.

Another innovative and unique way of communicating with people eventually came in the form of entertainment. In late 1999/early 2000, my love for gaming had taken a giant leap. I would often play 'online' with people from across the globe in a game called 'Counter Strike'. Essentially, the game involves two teams: Terrorists and Counter Terrorists and required the player to choose a side and undertake key objectives. You can be planting bombs, rescuing hostages (depending on which side you choose) or eliminating every single member of the opposite team. It was an absolute blast to play and further made my love for FPS's even stronger.

And now, we move into the darkest era of all....

Yea, call me what you want, I never really got into the whole 'Myspace', 'Bebo', 'Twitter' or any other ridiculous sounding communication technology. I swear the names of these things are getting pretty outrageous. Anyway I won't turn this into a rant or flame war. Quite simply, these sources of person-to-person contact, I believe, are the death of new commuication as we know it. Let me elaborate upon that. Since when did commuicating with friends require an avatar which is usually shot within a dark room with your mum's camera, usually posing? Or require a snazzy background, usually with some popular rapper, singer or sports car? Or even be judged upon how many friends you have, whether you know them or not?

In the year 2007, 'Myspace' was the new black. Everyone you knew, anyone you talked to, had a Myspace account. I must admit, I felt a little out of place for a while. I created one sometime in early 2007 and added a select few of my friends. I made a short profile description about myself and that was about it. Some time later I reviewed movies for enjoyment and posted it on my profile blog. Myspace allowed for much more creativity from it's 'Bebo' counterparts in terms of adding many little gimmicks to your profile page from music, to videos to custom backgrounds. You could also change the colour of your font and write anything you wanted for the world to see. If someone liked what they saw, they would 'add' you to their friends list. I...just...didn't see the appeal of it all. If you wanted to talk to someone, why not use e-mail? Or even call them? Everyone txt's, right? What's wrong with that?

Oh, I know why.

This form of new communication allowed the user to attract the attention they craved so much. I would often come across the profile pages of friends of mine to discover a rebellious side to them I would of never figured. Black backgrounds draped with a depressing layout of melancholy lettering and images; large text usually printed across the header of the page reading 'Screw the corporate world!' or 'Fight the System!', except the wording more...say... colourful. It was a place to deliver controversial ideas and opinions upon the world, society, or anything. Ultimately, Myspace was a place of extremes. Females would hog their pages with sexy shots of themselves, men would detail their page with an immense amount of photos of them flexing their biceps in the mirror, and the rest would post a message or blog every 30mins about pointless, trivial mumbo-jumbo in the hope of someone reading it.

This wasn't communicating. This was egotism at it's very peak.

Personally, privacy isn't an issue. New communications such as Myspace and Facebook, I believe, create an opportunity for people to express who they really are and want to desperately get their opinions across to as many people as possible. Companies such as Facebook and Google who collect information about their users, I still believe, gives them an outlook as to how the 'Myspace' mind thinks. I am some of the many people, I'm sure, who made a profile page 'because a friend told me to'; who visits his page every second week or so to see a photo that was 'tagged' of him. In most cases, privacy can be achieved by setting a 'private' lock on most Myspace and Facebook pages, disallowing anyone attempting to access that page.

Of course with a Myspace or Facebook profile, you are guaranteed to accept the friend requests of many strangers. It's only natural to some to find the profile of somebody else relative or appealing and to add them as a friend. From my experiences, most people add 'randoms' as a means to boost their friends numbers. I don't really do such a thing. Basically, the more friends you have, the more positive message you emit to somebody else as yourself being far more popular. Over the years I have had many 'random' add's from people I have no knowlegde of. I would, say, over 50 people or so? Some people are from the other side of the country, others are from the other side of the world. Some are bands wanting to promote their sound, others are religious groups with pages dedicated to God. I tend to simply accept these requests to be a friend to satisfy any interest they had for me, and then move on. In terms of the difference with these people you don't know and the ones you do - it's very simple. The difference for me is that the people I do know, I keep in contact with and talk to frequently. The people I don't know, I basically respect their interest to add me and maintain my status as a 'friend' of theirs to purpose whatever intentions they have for my addition. If they talk to me, I will talk back, of course. Then again, you never know who is on the other end!

To this day, I use MSN as a source of communication technology. It's a fantastic programme in which you also 'add' a select few of people using e-mail addresses and talk to them. Just like Myspace and all those, you will get 'random adds'. I also continue to play online in a variety of games, such as 'Left 4 Dead', 'Call of Duty 4', 'FarCry' and many, many, many others. I will continue using a variety of new communication technologies for many years to come, and look forward to any new innovations that come it's way.