Confessions of an Online User

For my first class blog entry, I would like to share to you my personal online journey so far--- the social networking sites that I have had an account with and the ones that I use at the moment. This does not include the gaming websites and the sites that I usually visit. This blog entry will be more focused on social networking sites such as blogging, networking, et cetera.

I spend a disturbingly huge amount of time online. I have not been keeping track of the exact quantity of hours, but let's just say that as long as I have an Internet connection I'm most likely to be online. So here is my 25 cents worth of Internet experience that takes a big chuck out of my everyday life. I confess, I am an Internet Geek (if there's such a word).

Love at first sight

My very first online account was with Friendster. Yes, Friendster! Although I'm no longer using it, I kept it for sentimental reasons. The tiny detail at the bottom of my profile page stating that I have been a member since August 2004 will remind me of my rookie years. Oh, the early years of being online, can you still remember yours?

I remember having a competition with my friends when it comes to Friendster. Who collected the most number of strangers--- uhm, ‘friends’? Who has the coolest profile page? And the list goes on.

I have also tried other networking sites, pre-Facebook era. I had MySpace, Bebo, Virb, hi5 and more (let’s stop here or I’ll embarrass myself further). Although I wasn’t able to fully use them, I just made an account, had a browse, then left and forget. Is this normal or what? I have also had aMultiply account, it has served me well when it came to uploading photos and keeping contact with my friends a few years ago. And then, there came the almighty Facebook!

Flash forward to 2010, I have ‘evolved’ from the sticky caps typing teenager on Friendster and MySpace, to this overly obsessive Facebook-user of our generation. I admit, Facebook is the first site that I visit everyday, what’s yours?

If I can remember it right, I think I created my Facebook account around 2006. I never used it as excessively as I do now until most of my friends migrated to it. Now almost everything and everyone depends on Facebook. I have been thinking of leaving for good, deactivate my account and go back to reality. However, in our Facebook generation, isn't it that Facebook suddenly became our ‘reality’, well, somehow? Thoughts?

And so, I created a list of pros and cons about Facebook. I know that this may not be an exhausted list, but this is purely based on my personal view on the site. It would be nice to see your own view on this. So go on, make your own list and we can compare notes.

PROS

1. Keeping contact with friends, family and acquaintances, as well as expanding your network. In which, it also leads to number 2.

2. Stalking them.

3. Facebook’s status update feature can be your outlet to voice out your thoughts on random mundane things.

4. Being invited and to keep tabs on the latest events. Plus Points to your used-to-be non-existent popularity level.

5. Adding your crush/es and use it as a confidence building weapon to advance your own personal motives (as what I’ve been told).

6. Pointless applications, mostly illogical quizzes and very addictive games to boost your happiness level--- as well as helping you master your procrastination skill.

7. And much more.

CONS

1. High chance of ending your relationship with friends, family and acquaintances. In return, you are building a strong bond with your laptop/computer and your Internet connection.

2. If you fail in your university degree or lose your current job, you can always rely on the path of the bright ‘stalking’ career. All those hours of training must pay off in one way or another. However, don’t forget that it might bounce back to you, that is, your privacy is also jeopardised by the prying eyes of your ‘friends’.

3. There is also a great chance that you end up ranting too much on your Facebook page. Either:

a. You will end up annoying your friends because of your stat flooding, which in turn result to losing a number of them.

b. You become your own antagonist.

c. You publish too much information which fuels number 2.

d. All of the above, plus more.

4. RSPV-ing to events is now redefined. Also, you end up having too many ‘events’ to attend that you become this wild social animal. If you are the one having the event, there is a big chance that there will be 6000+ people keen to attend (you might have to rethink your next birthday party).

5. Huge chance you will end up having online relationships--- just online, no real life boyfriends/girlfriends (which may be good or bad to some).

6. As stated above, you become a Master Procrastinator, which also entails a great chance of you failing your university degree or losing your job--- Bachelor of WWW Dot major in Social Networking Sites, minor in Facebook, and a current Masters degree in Procrastination.

7. Much more as well--- unfortunately.

Blogging

I had my first ‘Hello World!’ in August 2006 on my first blog with Blogger. However, I have put up and put down numerous blogs over the years, for privacy, personal and online-bipolar-changing-mind reasons. I have also tried LiveJournal and WordPress but I stayed with Blogger back then.

At the moment, I believe Tumblr is the perfect blog (micro-blogging/RSS/bookmarking) site for me. I do not like sharing thoughts and typing huge amount of texts about my boring life to strangers (or so I thought). With Tumblr you can post and repost interesting photos, quotes, videos that may or may not be related to your thoughts and emotions--- a very subtle way of documenting your current state of mind. Also, I find the Tumblr’s interface to my liking, minimalist blogging and such. Like the other bookmarking sites that I have used (WeHeartIt, StubleUpon, 1x, etc) Tumblr somehow became my main base to be inspired and discover interesting things online. Well, that’s my personal view on blogging sites.

On the other hand, when it comes to micro-blogging, I have Twitter and Plurk. I tried Plurk for a couple of weeks since my friends overseas use them, but I gave it up since the pressure of maintaining your ‘karma points’ beats the whole point of blogging. I used to enjoy the early days of Twitter, when marketers, spammers and celebrities have yet to plague it. I guess I feel that the enormous amount of people and information on Twitter killed my interest. Now, as much as I want to delete my Twitter account I’m keeping it for research and observation purposes.

My other online whereabouts

At the moment, I can say that I am an avid user of deviantArt, Vimeo, Youtube, LOOKBOOK.nu and Flickr, in addition to Facebook and Tumblr. I am still keeping track of the latest social networking websites that will somehow interest me. I also started using TeuxDeux, a browser-based To-Do application and The Hype Machine; as well as, Formspring.me for entertainment purposes. So far here is my list of the sites that I can remember in which I have had an account and left in addition to the ones I already mentioned: Dipdive, Last.fm, Chicopia, Lexposure, LinkedIn, Shelfari, 43Things and much more.

What’s yours like?

-A-