Over the past few weeks, my English 1A class has been reading from the book The World is a Text by Jonathan Silverman and Dean Rader. One assignnment was to read from an article entitled "Say Everything" by Emily Nussbaum. I was quite interested in this reading as I was able to actually relate it to my own life, or should I say, my internet life. Nussbaum's article mainly focuses on several different young women who frequently use these social networking sites for their everyday lives. One of them was a mid-twenties New York resident, Kitty Ostapowicz. To tell you the truth, although I have never met her before in my life, I actually like her thoughts and ideas. In one part of the interview with Nussbaum, Kitty was asked about how she were to feel if she came upon her blogs in the future. She says, "It's a documentation of my youth, in a way. Even if it's just me, going back and Googling myself in 25 or 30 years. It's myself--what I used to be, what I used to do."
Growing up in the Silicon Valley, which plays a huge role in rising technology, it isn't surprising that I am now very much reliable on my macbook, cell phone, ipod, etc. I learned to use the computer at age 8, and by age 10, I already had my own AOL instant messenger screen name and a Xanga blogging site. Actually, to make it more clear, I had several blogging sites. As I entered middle school and high school, things took a turn for me as I started to use Myspace more. Now as a college student, I am frequently checking my Facebook and I also have my own tumblr blogging site (just because nobody in the world uses Xanga anymore). After reading what Kitty said, it got me to think. How would I feel if I were to go back in 20 or so years and read my blogs or look at my old facebook or myspace? Would they even still be there? If they were, how would I feel when reading them? I'd probably look back on them and think "Ha, wow! Why did I ever post that? How immature." Even so, I agree with Kitty when she calls her blogs a 'documentation'. Yes, of course I too would love to look back on the documentaries of my own life someday. What now seems as nonsensical ramblings of my daily life could possibly be a memorabilia worthy of remembrance in the future. Love, M.
Like you, I'd never heard of Kitty before. Like you, I agree with her: as strange as my blogs and posts even just two years ago may be, they're still a part of me. I may have been a young idiot sometimes, but it makes me laugh, and reminds me of why I should be nice to other people like that, because once I was the same way.
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