Internetlife

I use the tag "internetlife" on del.icio.us a lot these days, and it's a concept that I think about often. Basically by my definition, internetlife is something that I do now that I never would have done before the internet existed, or something that I used to do clumsily but the internet now allows me to do with ease.

It is unbelievable to me how much the world has changed because of the internet, but almost more unbelievable is how much the internet has changed because of the world. The first 100 or so times I accessed the world wide web (yeah, yeah, I know there's more to the internet than the web, yada yada, but there's only so much you can get done with gopher, knowwhatimsayin? I still use Usenet to this day though), I pretty much just looked at it. The most striking thing in my memory of the web as a new user is that it was a passive experience instead of interactive.

As old as it makes me sound, I actually remember the very first time I ever used the web. It was on the Mosaic browser in a computer lab on the campus of University of Alaska Anchorage. I remember searching for information on 10,000 Maniacs (yeah, still a fan of the Merchant's voice, not an avid listener much anymore though, and why I would have picked this band over any other to look for on my first day on the web, I'll never know) and reading little bits and bobs of text on the rudimentary fansites. The version of Mosiac I was using didn't even have support for images, it just had little boxes with an "Image" tag. I remember thinking "wow, that will someday be a picture of Natalie Merchant. I wonder when?".

Fast forward 10.5 years. I have used the internet to archive my digital photography, catalog my movie/music/game collection, play games with my friends using voice chat, acquire new and rare music, buy things, sell things, watch live music performances, find old friends, and learn about many different niche communities that otherwise would have been completely invisible to me. I grew up in an era where the only way one could get information on toys or music or tv or any of the other pop culture fun things that unite Generation X was from other kids, or maybe every once in a while a magazine. Add into that mix that I grew up in Idaho, and you can see how even living in 1987 could feel like it was 1967. Now I feel like I live in the land of the Jetsons.

First there was no internet. Then I just looked at the internet. Now I use the internet every day for both work and play, it's part of my life, and I can't imagine how things would work for me without it. Heck, I can't even imagine using dial-up anymore.