Jonathan Onnen
Mr. Jack A. Hennes
ENGL 191-17
3 September 2012
Electronic
Literacy Narrative
When
I was first growing up in the countryside with large trees and abundant corn
fields, my family bought our first piece of a technological revolution that was
just barely forming. On that relatively ordinary day in the middle of a very
normal summer vacation, we bought our first Windows computer. We did not know
it at the time, but eventually as computer technologies advanced further and
further, an entire new world was opened. For me personally, as I grew older, I
discovered different social networking sites that allowed me to find friends
all across the country and it has since changed the way I view how people
connect through modernized technology.
The
first time I communicated with another person through the internet was around
the sixth grade when I had made my first Microsoft Network (MSN) chat account.
It was wonderful because it allowed me to stay in contact with my friends even
when we were not directly next to each other (cell phones were just starting to
become a big deal around this time). Through this chat messaging site, I
strengthened many friendships that at the time did not seem like they would
last. Eventually, I would communicate with this form of instant messaging with
friends I made from other sites, and strengthen friendships with people from
coast to coast. Today, I still have MSN, but only use it for it's emailing purposes,
and a great majority of those messages are in fact junk mail.
Following
my MSN account, I then registered to use the site that has now become one of
the most popular and used worldwide: Facebook. Before I had decided to get
Facebook, I already knew that many of my friends were already online and
connected through this website. However, I was still extremely intimidated by
the sheer quantity of friends who could find me. I had to learn and discover
what I should post online for everyone else to see because I knew that once I
made any private information online, it was no longer considered “private
information.” At that moment, I came to the sudden realization that as much as
I felt like sharing was something I really wanted to do, I knew that not everything
was meant to become public. I was certain that I did not want people knowing my
exact address, or my mobile phone number or what I was doing at every exact
moment of my life at any given moment in time. With this new information, I
decided that I could take on different social networking sites and that I
wanted other people; not just the ones that were local and I could see on a
regular basis.
The
third massive social networking site that I discovered and joined was referred
to as “MyYearbook,” which has now become known as “MeetMe.” The reason behind
me moving to yet another new social networking site was because I knew I had
Facebook, where I could always find the friends I was hanging out with around
school, but I wanted to talk to people from different areas of the country with
different views on life in comparison to my own.
Starting
out, I was incredibly nervous; I was doing something outside of my normal
comfort zones, and I was being more open about certain information that I had
not posted on other sites such as Facebook. I was trying out the whole idea of
being an open and honest person with people I would probably never meet,
because if I wanted them to be honest in conversation with me, I knew I too
would have to be honest with them and myself. So to start out with, I filled in
all of the simple ridiculous little questions they asked like, “What's your
favorite junk food?” or, “If you could be an animal, which one would you be?”
It was all pretty odd to say the least, but I took it in stride and made it
more of an adventure into a place that would allow me to make more friends no
matter the distance.
Then,
came the time for me to start making small talk with people I had never talked
to before. Starting out, it was more difficult than I thought it would be. On
Facebook, you find people you know and just click, “send friend request,” and
then bam! Just like that, you two are connected online just like you are in the
real world. Starting out on a totally different site however, was much different.
It forced me to break a bit more out of my comfort zone, because I was
generally the one kid in class that no one had actually ever heard talking. So
generally, it was fairly difficult for me, but eventually I started to get the
hang of talking with people from all over the country, and I became more and
more comfortable.
Eventually,
I even started to make friends who I could talk to without any judgment and
they would always be an open ear to talk to. Don't get me wrong, I have friends
in my hometown that I can do that with just as well, but for some reason it was
just comforting knowing that the people online could most likely never come
back with any private information and try to harm you or your reputation.
I
then began to make friends from all around the United States and I learned a
great deal from each and every one of them. They came from all sorts of
different backgrounds economically, ethnically, and so on. They taught me that
there is more than just some small town in Minnesota that no one has ever heard
of, and they duly changed the way I think, read, write, and behave around
others.
So,
what I am getting at is that technology has done a great deal for me throughout
my short life. I have made friends from all different walks of life, solidified
friendships I never knew I could have solid, and managed to keep in contact
with friends I know I will have for life. In addition to this, I have also had
a change of perspective in many of the things I do and work with. For example,
socially, I tend to try and be more open and accepting to everyone and think
out what I say before I say it aloud. My writings have also been changed,
because often I try to make them a tad bit more personal than a normal paper
might be. I try to make sure that the words I write are what I want to be
expressed and not someone's opinion other than my own. My thoughts are my own
and if I am going to write them out, I want to make sure that they are what I
want them to be. To think back now, it seems a little funny how a simple
computer way back when could have changed who I am as a person so far down the
road. I like to think that technology can change a person, and in many times
that change is for the better.
