G-mail.
The best thing on the internet is a free e-mail server. Quite the prevalent business nowadays. When I was younger we had AOL, America OnLine, so you're not confused about which country the company came from. All of America was OnLine thanks to AOL. It was my first e-mail account, Star4Ever, I know, but come on, I was twelve. From there I discovered chat rooms and news pages. Who knew that a chat room wasn't actually a room but a page, which isn't REALLY a "page" but a window on a computer screen, a two-dimensional block of writing and buttons that will connect you to people with one click.
My best friend in High School was Anna, she didn't know that she was my best friend because I was such a crappy friend but she was it for me. Her bipolar had taken over for most of the school year so we hadn't hung out a lot. Anna's mom was a completely pure and wonderful person, pure meaning genuine, meaning she didn't shit around. Her bird-like laugh "cockadoodledooed" inside the car until neither Anna nor I could hear. We were going to pick up her best friend, Julie. They hugged, allowing their cheeks to touch in such a tender way I thought they were sisters. Immediately their hips were attached and inseperable. No part of my fifteen-year-old mind thought "they met in a chat room." It just didn't happen that way when I was fifteen! Anna's mom was the first person I had met who had an online friend in real life. I had an online friend, lots of them actually, one in particular named John, with whom I am still friends. He's a writer, only five years older than I am. He critiqued my writing and helped me along my way, we talked on the phone occaionally, his dark gristly voice on the other line was so alluring. Then he got a Facebook page, and so did I when I got into college. We were then Facebook friends and the picture in my head was not the picture on his default. It was a disappointement. It makes me doubt eHarmony and dating websites. Looks aren't everything, but physical attraction is a major part of all reationships. We're such a visual culture. I thought the internet was going to change that but it only increased it. Now, instead of seeing the occasional photo of a person online, there is a subtle competition happening for the most photos of oneself on websites such as Facebook. There is an entire MySpace culture vying for attention via strategically taken photos, mirror fully utilized. My youngest sister grew up knowing how to work a computer and "artfully" take a photo of herself without her face being splashed out by the flash reflection in the mirror. Ellie, my sister, grew up without realizing there was a time when webcams and microphones and joysticks didn't always come with a computer. We had a separate microphone that I used to sing into, I had no idea its actual use, perhaps my Dad used it as a dictaphone, I used it to fulfill my rockstar potential.
The thing is, now, my boyfriend's family members all met their significant others on a dating website, the same one in fact. This has become totally and completely normal, all within my short lifetime.
What, I wonder, could possibly be next?
No comments:
Post a Comment