How I met the Internet...

I have been on the Internet pretty much as soon as I was allowed to touch a computer. As a child, I was allowed two hours of screen time every night on the family computer. I spent most of my time playing free online games. Poptropica, Club Penguin, Webkinz, and Fantage where among my favorites and I would spend hours customizing my characters on these sites. I would also plan to meet up with friends on these websites during school ("meet me in the coffee shop at 7 so we can play the sledding game!"). Most of these sites had a built in chat feature so you could meet new friends online. I also played games with my sister on barbie.com and girlsgogames, which were completely free and had loads of games to choose from. Once I got to middle school, before social media had really taken off, I would use Gmail chat to talk to all my friends. To me this is what the Internet means and has always meant- connection. It is so easy to be with friends even when you are physically alone. It's also easy to make new friends online, especially through sites like Tumblr which are geared towards common interests rather than posting pictures of yourself.

However, my Internet use has evolved a lot since my early introduction to it. The Internet is so much more versatile now. Instead of having the Internet as a treat for a few hours, I now spend most of my day on it. I'm constantly using it for school, even before covid. I still use it to play games (although my taste has evolved a little!) and talk to friends, but when the computer is open there is a constant feeling that you should be doing an assignment. In my free time I spend a lot of time on streaming sites like Netflix and Hulu, sometimes to actively watch shows and sometimes just to provide background noise. I also enjoy browsing reddit from time to time, especially the AITA sub.

To learn more about me, check out the rest of my site coming soon!