This weekend was a rough one – I literally spent about 40 hours working, yet I still feel like I’m ridiculously far behind. I also moved all my web hosting clients to a new server, and let me just say that it was even less exciting than it sounds.
Anyway, there was a lot of technology going on in my life all weekend long, and it got me thinking about the enormous strides we’ve made since I was a kid. Sometimes when I think about how much the internet has changed society, I’m just blown away. I’ve now been using the internet in some form or another for 20 years. (Also, I can’t believe I’m old enough to talk about doing anything for 20 years other than being alive.)
I also thought about some of the stupid, stupid things I’ve done using all the computers, gadgets, and gizmos available to me over the years. Here are just a few examples.
Confession: My first website was a Tupac Shakur fan page.
Yeah. I was/am a huge Tupac fan, especially when I was a preteen and he was still alive. So I made this horrible, gaudy fan page on Geocities that featured “borrowed” images, song lyrics, and lots of flashing/moving elements. I wish the Wayback Machine could find it – it was truly a wonder to behold. Anyone else remember web rings? I was a member of about 40 of them, all with their own flashing graphics, all dedicated to Tupac and/or gangster rap. Shame factor: 6/10
Confession: I paid $50 for a hard-to-find CD after finding it for sale online.
Years ago, my aunt asked me for help finding Pat Benatar’s Tropico on CD. This was pre-browser, when everything online was all text. After weeks of searching (no Google) I found it listed on some shady classified ad site, bought it, mailed a check (the horror!) and got my aunt to reimburse me. We actually got the CD, though, which is a miracle. Today I can buy the entire album in mp3 format for less than ten bucks and have it in a matter of minutes. Shame factor: 5/10
Confession: I was a prolific giver of “Thanks for the add!” graphics.
Remember those? The glittery, cartoony images you could post on someone’s Myspace profile after they added you? I was ridiculously addicted to those things, and I used to hoard them so I would always have the perfect one to post on someone’s profile. I remember making one for my ex-husband’s martial arts instructor with the Pedro Sauer logo on it. These days I prefer to pretend like Myspace – and its scary graphics – never existed. Shame factor: 7/10
Confession: My first cell phone plan had 60 minutes a month.
I’ll always remember my first cell phone. It made Zach Morris’ phone look high tech. Between the 2-foot antenna and the little calculator-like screen, it made me the envy of all my friends. It also cost $40 a month for sixty (not a typo) minutes and free weekends. I didn’t even get free nights! It had the number buttons, star, pound, a green button to call, and a red button to hang up. No menus, no texting, no nothing. Oh yeah, and I ended up with a huge bill because of roaming charges – remember those? – and my dad had to pay it. Needless to say, it was many years later before I had another cell phone. Shame factor: 6/10
What are Your Internet Confessions?
I know I can’t be the only person who did some stupid things involving technology back in the good old days before you could carry the internet in your pocket. I could tell these stories for hours, but I’d rather hear about your experiences so I can feel better about mine!
What are your internet confessions? Any super embarrassing stories and/or tales of technology that make you feel as old as I do right now? Let’s hear them!
Something embarrassing about me is that when I was little, I LOVED Neopets. AHHH 🙂
ZOMG! Yes. I was so into Neopets for a couple of years back then.
I missed the Neopets craze… I'm not that much older than you, am I? I remember my younger cousin having them. #feeloldnow
Haha I played it when it first came out, I was probably 9 or 10. And I'm 23 🙂
I was so in love with Neopets! Sadly, I think I was like 11 or 12 years old. I'm 24 now. I don't know if that's little or just sad. Lol.
Can we please talk about the embarrassing stuff we all did involving ICQ and MSN messenger? Yeah, thank God we don't have access to those conversations.
Heh. I actually have a floppy disk (yes, seriously) somewhere where I backed up some of my old MSN messenger conversations that I thought were so important and wanted to save for posterity. /cringe. I'm pretty sure they consist of me and my former best friend/XBF of some description tiptoeing around the RELATIONSHIP issue over IM. Ugh.
Oh My God. Looking back, my parents should have never let me and my friends be on ICQ. "asl?"
Seriously, though, we didn't even realize how bad we were being by being literal online jailbait chatting with old men. That's probably my biggest internet confession.
Oh yeah – and I know this makes me uncool, but I don't get Pinterest. What the dude is the point?
OMG I almost blocked out the horrible memories of ICQ… I had about 15 different accounts and I was a total troll.
You know, my shame fell more to offline activities. THe only thing I really used in those early days was AOL Instant Messenger to talk to girls. I was mostly offline though, getting into trouble that way! THe Tupac website is funny though, haha, but cool that you were making websites way back when!
Hahaha – you don't miss all those ridiculous graphics? Oh, me either! I also had a geocities site with the requisite borrowed images and horrid colours. I think it had a pink background. At least I once knew a little bit of HTML and it still comes in handy occasionally!
OMG too many things! I had a Geocities site back in the day where I would write short stories and thought that I would be discovered and become a famous author (or be cast as Hermione Granger. Somehow…) I saw the webvring things but never knew what they were. I can't believe that you had a Tupac fanpage. Omg…
I never used Myspace so I can't comment there (I know eh! Never, ever, ever).
NEOPETS!!! If you go to Neopets now it's all different and weird and not fun (or maybe that's because I'm 24…)
MSN: The biggest waste of time and documentation of my teenage awkwardness ever. I have a laptop at my parents house where all of my conversations are saved on. I want to go and look but don't, you know??
I'm so upset that I don't have a screenshot left from the Tupac page… It was awesome. LOL
Someone should have told me I was a little too much of a white girl for that, but no one ever did. =P
I wrote a book review on Amazon when I was like nine. It's STILL there when I google my name. Poor grammar and all. I've tried to delete it so many times, but I made it with an old email address.
Wow, that one is pretty sucktastic. But you can always write more reviews to knock that one down in the search results!
My Internet confession is that it took me a ridiculously long time to begin to use the Internet regularly. We didn't even have Internet in our home until 2003.
*dies of shock*
My dad is an engineer, so my sister and I were exposed to all things geek at very young ages. I can barely remember a time when we didn't do things online… I think we got our first modem in 1993!
I was an admin of a MUD – a "multi user dungeon" text role playing game. Shame: 5/10 – it was fun, but I'm unlikely to tell very many real world people bout it.
haha, Mr. PoP was a "mudder" in high school!
OMG I was completely addicted to Legend of the Red Dragon. There are still a few BBSes around that have it, but I try not to get sucked into it again because it would consume my entire life.
I remember that. 🙂
very funny! lol. thanks for sharing
Those are amazing confessions, and I too like to think that Myspace never existed (the horror!)/
I was on pretty much every social network ever (Bebo, Hi5, Friendster) but managed to miss the Myspace train. Not that I think that's a bad thing!
Bahaha. I used to tape songs onto cassettes off the radio.
And my first site was an S Club 7 fan site (more on my internet history here: http://nzmuse.com/2012/02/29/blogging-platforms/).
I called the radio to request Waterfalls by TLC for the purpose of recording it onto a tape. And was thrilled when they played my voice asking for the song right before it played. *SHAME!!*
I had already moved to CDs by the time "Waterfalls" was on the radio. That was one of the first CDs I ever got – the very first was Green Day's Dookie album. I can't believe I remember that but it was SUCH a big deal. I had exactly enough money saved for my amazing stereo with the 3-disc changer and one CD.
My sister and I used to do that too! I had a billion tapes with stickers over the holes where I had taped over them.
Do you remember Angelfire? I remember creating an account/page but I don't remember exactly why or what the point was. I used to play Euchre with a bunch of weirdos on Yahoo Games. Even though I had no idea how to play.
oh, how I wish your geocities site were still available!!! what a travesty to have been lost to the ages 🙁
my personal confession would be the ALARMING number of hours I spent on AOL instant messenger in the late nineties…but honestly I'm not sure I could live with myself if I tried to calculate how much time I wasted trying to interpret whether a guy's "LOL" meant he really liked me or not…
I created my own geocities website with "dollz" of me and my friends.
I called once (a long time ago) a customer support re: a CD burner on my old computer. This CD burner (I believe it was called that) was not working. I tried to burn a CD, and nothing was happening. I called Dell customer service. I spent about thirty minutes with them on a phone, clicking away. Finally, the guy asked me if the CD burner was plugged in. I looked and noticed that I have NOT plugged it in. Horrified and embarrassed, I hang up. Didn't even say "goodbye." To this day I feel like a moron.
Had totally forgotten about Geocities and ICQ. Wow, way to bring back memories – ones that should stay forgotten! I had a Myspace account, too. Wow, that was a bad idea.
Not really a confession, but a story about technology. At my church several years ago, we had a 'secret sister' kind of thing where we were supposed to give little gifts and such over the course of a year. I created a fake email account so that I could email her encouragement throughout the week. At the end of the year when we did our 'reveal' she said she knew it was me all year because I was the only one in our group who was smart enough with computers to have thought of that. LOL
My entire myspace. Just no.
I had it during my preteen years, and it was horrible. I keep trying to delete it, but myspace never sends me the emails! (Yes, I checked to make sure it was the right email, and no, it wasn't in my spam box)
I really really REALLY wish myspace would go away for good.
Also, when children, like 7 year old me, are allowed on the internet to go on sites like Nick or Club Penguin where they have an avatar and can told to people, they most likely will enter an online relationship. I was in many.
I spent my whole life on the internet, so these started at a young age and can think of soooooooo many more. It is horrible.
I still use my email address I made in high school. It references Gilmore Girls. Sigh. I can't stand deleting it though, since that's where my emails are all nicely organized. I get my email from my "proper" email address forwarded through.
Also MySpace… ew. Mine probably still says I'm engaged. And I'm divorced now.
1990s= Geocities, "midi"s on every page (pre .wav music files), mouse_over and hover icons were the pinnacle of my design.
Oh boy…. I had about 3 "homepages" with aol and I was constantly updating the glittery images, the music, and my html codes. Go figure at 13-15 I would know so much about finding html codes. I have to admit though I had a habit of dating a guy for a year then making a "love" home page about how we met, with lots of hearts and a sappy love song of course. When the relationships fell apart, as did the page. I really wish I could find some of those old photos though… you know back when I was too young to know what dark circles, and normal hair color was. Myspace was definitely something I put so much effort into making pretty, and always having it perfect until I realized everyone was abandoning it and I was left to post statuses to myself.
I think my account on teenopendiary was probably the most embarrassing internet thing I did. No wait, any of my many hotmail accounts. God I thought I was so cool.