WILD CARD!!!!! Write about one experience you’ve had with communication on the internet that happened outside of this course. Explain what happened, why the situation was exacerbated or eased because the situation occurred in the realm of cyberspace. How would the situation have been different had it happened outside of cyberspace? This situation could be a mis-communication because the words written were misinterpreted, something didn’t happen because of the technology, etc
When my family first got the internet, there was no cable or DSL broadband provides. It was all dial-up 56k speed, and the only choice you really had was the type of web browser you wanted to use. I still remember when we first got America Online. AOL was the first biggest thing besides Napster for me because it had all these new ideas that I was unfamiliar with; e-mails, instant messenger, web browsing, chat rooms. Everything in one package! I still remember when I didn't know how to instant message someone online, and I started off e-mailing people back and forth waiting for responses. Ah the good ol' days. As personal computers were still fairly new to homes around America, we only had one as a family. We all shared the same computer, which was mostly used by myself and my mother. My brother and father weren't so quick to adapt to the new technology.
Anyway, as I became more familiar with the internet and all of its tools, IM's became very popular when I entered high school. Everyone either had AOL or had AIM with their own screen name. Everyday after I would finish my homework or whatever I would sign into AOL at night before I went to bed to chat with my friends. Well, one night before I went to bed, I was having a conversation with a buddy of mine about an event that had happened recently. This event is not something I'm going to explain for the best reasons, instead I'll just let you know that I was doing something that I should had never been doing. If my parents knew that we were involved in this event, there would be some serious consequences.
The next day, as soon as I walked into the door to my home, my parents told me to sit down on the couch (this is usually a very bad sign, either someone died or I'm dead for doing something). My mother quickly informed me that she read the entire conversation that I had with my friend the previous night. I had accidentally left the chat window up, and never closed it out before I went to bed. So there it sat, waiting for my mom to wake up to when she got onto the computer.
This was the worst conflict that I had ever had with my parents. I mean, this was a very serious matter, and it probably never would have been brought up to my parents attention if I left that chat window up. That chat window never would have been left up if I didn't discover the the IM feature on AOL. The IM feature never would have existed if the internet had not hit the homes of Americans.
Fortunately, this whole thing was a blessing in disguise. My parents forgave me for the things I had been doing. They of course gave me a harsh punishment, but the punishment made me realize that the juice wasn't worth the squeeze. Sometimes it takes some tough love to fix the problems you have in life. Without the internet, this would never had happened.
5 comments:
I would have to agree with you, some of the things that AOL and AIM have offered us as consumers haven't always been beneficial. I remember back to the day as well when instant messaging was the thing to do. I would chat with friends and what not until I found out that I had one friend who was up to no good. She would save our conversations and share them with people if she asked me questions about them that would affect how they saw me or how I saw them, and she would constantly live in conflict. I later learned that in most cases the AIM saves your conversations for a while so if the girl I mentioned about tried to screw me over so to say I could print out the conversations and share what my real responses were and untwist, the twisters words.
Been there, done that! I remember when I had a buddy list a mile long and if you didn't IM every night, you were not part of the cool crowd. I also remember IM'ing AND talking on the phone at the same time to clarify or expand on a story. Now days, hardly anyone IM's, unless they do it from a hand-held device. If we still had to sit at a desk, it probably wouldn't happen at all...no one sits still for that long anymore.
Oh, the good o'ld days!!
That is cool that you are looking at this situation in a positive way. You could say that if it weren’t for the internet then you would have never got in trouble. In this case technology inadvertently helped your life. If only that was the case for everyone. I two remember the days when AIM was the only thing I could think about. It was a great way to take my artificial middle school drama back home with me. AIM was also the start of effective multi tasking conversation. We could talk with someone while surfing the internet, writing an email, etc. Also, it was a great way to prove what was said because of the print option. AIM was definitely the start of a whole new communication tool.
I remember the good ol' days of dial up! I used to beg my parents to get AOL so that I could have IM! I've gotten into trouble from it, too, except in my case it was because my friend logged on to my screen name and pretended to be me! I was definitely in deep water with my friends until I finally convinced them it wasn't me! Regardless of that, I still think that AIM and CMC in general are valuable methods of communication.
Pretty crazy how fast Instant Messaging has evolved and expanded into twitter and texting. Calculator watches to dial-up modems to pocket computers and beyond. It's incredible how fast we incorporate technology into our lives!
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