Facebook vs. Myspace

Back in 1984, I took the ASVAB before graduating high school. FOHI just barely had established a computer lab when I was in my senior or maybe even my junior year. It was located in a portable trailer which soon took over many of the parking lots on campus. I was more interested in Art and Ag (Ag to satisfy my science requirement, but more on that later.) than typing. I had taken typing in junior high for like two weeks and it bored me to tears so I transferred out of that class just as soon as I could into something else. Anyway, what I was getting at was computers were so new in 1984 let alone new to me because up until that time I had never even touched one, I was surprised when the Army recruiter contacted me to tell me he was interested in training me for computers. I basically laughed in his face and went on my merry way. I never pursued a military career.

After a family friend got me into banking because I had cashiering experience, I was exposed to computers for the first time in 1988. Bank computers are pretty much dumb terminals, a point of collecting data and telling you only what you need to know to get the job done they wanted to you do. Yawn.

Later, after I decided I need to be exposed to more chances for opportunities for employment and I moved to Orange County, I got a job with Bankers Trust. The year was 1992. The computers they used were a step up as compared to the dumb terminals I was used to. They were on a network and had applications I had to log into. We also had some access to the Internet at that time.

After a few years, I was able to get my credit going again and I purchased my first computer. So I've had some sort of presence on the Internet since 1995, amazingly so. Cruising the web had entertained me at some level for about a month but it was very passive at that time. I got kind of tired of reading the text and there was not much interaction involved... until I found IRC, then all hell broke loose. I was hooked on the immediate feedback of people sitting and typing to me just like I was sitting and typing to them. I spent hours upon hours chatting to people all over the globe. At one time, I had a map of the world and marked it to signify the locations of the people I chatted with. I had made friends who helped me upgrade my computers so that I could run Linux and have more than one client running at any one time.

Fast forward to 2005. IRC had run its course in my life, but I was still using the Internet frequently, but now mostly for informational purposes. I joined Myspace. I joined and found people that liked the things I liked and I thought that was cool. I was able to gain an ounce of social life back that I missed all the time I was focused so seriously on working and on being a single parent while raising my son as best I could. I made a few friends, and went to a lot of musical performances, shows, concerts, what have you... I still maintain a profile on Myspace, but really only for gaming purposes.

Now, I'm maintaining a Facebook page as a personal page. I used to have one a few years ago, but I didn't like the payout and it was confusing to me, yeah me, so I closed it almost as fast as I opened it, but now it's different. It seems to me to be better at filtering content: what you want versus what you don't want. I play games there, too, but it doesn't cloud my whole Facebook experience like on Myspace which I like. It just seems like a less intense, more mellow place to hang out on line, which is more my style.