Essay For Class

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.