My Digital Life Final Draft

November 23, 2007, the day my Facebook life began. It’s weird because I actually remember that night that I was trying to convince my parents to let me get a Facebook and they were very hesitant and skeptical. It was the latest thing so of course I wanted to see what it was like and wanted to try it out. My parents, on the other hand, were very worried it wasn’t safe, and had heard all the dangers of MySpace and thought Facebook would be just as dangerous with all the scary people in the world being able to find out everything about you. I reassured them that Facebook was much different and was much safer, that you could give as much or little information that you wanted. It took my parents a lot of convincing but they finally gave in. My little 8^th grade self was so excited. I loved adding all my friends and seeing who was going to add me or what notifications I was going to get. I loved everything about Facebook.

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In 2004, Mark Zuckerburg started Facebook out of his dorm room at Harvard. It’s hard to believe one guy created a site that now 8 years later over 500 million people are active users. It’s crazy how quick it has grown. These days’ people of all ages are on Facebook, many grandparents and younger kids are on Facebook. Nowadays it seems like the entire world is on Facebook. When you apply for jobs, that employer is more than likely going to look at your profile and see what kind of life you portray on there. They can get to know almost everything about you in a matter of minutes.

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I remember back at the beginning of Facebook when there would be different “apps” and games. My favorite was the bumper stickers. I would spend hours finding cute ones or ones with silly little quotes and add them to my profile or send them to my friends. Another was Graffiti wall, which was kind of like paint but on Facebook, and you could write little messages on other people’s wall. There were so many things that you could customize you profile and organize it how you wanted. The most resent layout is the timeline; I can go back and see what has happened throughout my entire time on Facebook.

It’s funny to look back through my Facebook and to see how I have changed and my various phases I went through. Between the different sports and activities I was once into and all my interests that have come and gone through the years. When I look at all my past statuses in middle school, I say to myself, “what was I thinking?” They were so silly and pointless I don’t know why I would put these things as my status. Even the way I talked was different, before I would abbreviate and use the latest “lingo,” now I hardly abbreviate at all when texting or talking to someone on Facebook. At one point I loved Picnik where you add words and things to different pictures. I did it to so many pictures that it became a problem. I had so many different pictures that I would add quotes, or frames to.

As I look back through my pictures, just in my profile pictures alone, I see how I have changed. At one time I had glasses and braces and looked so young. At one time I remember that I was very concerned with how many friends I had and wanted to make it as many as I possibly could. I wanted to be able to say that I had lots of friends, even if it was just on Facebook. Now I realize how ridiculous that is, it’s so much better to just be friends with your actual friends and not people you have never spoken to and barely recognize.

 

As I was looking back through my timeline I found people that I was friends with at one time, haven’t talked to in years and I went back and looked at their profile. I completely forgot that at one time I was good friends with them. It’s very interesting to see how people have changed from how you originally knew them years ago. It’s weird to think that times have changed and so have people.

 

I have always been very cautious about what goes on Facebook and how others would see me. I wanted it to be an exact representation of me and not some fake person that wasn't really me. I have always thought about what I put on Facebook could affect me later. I wanted others to know that what they see on Facebook is the real me.

 

I love Facebook because it makes it really easy to keep up with family that live out of state and seeing what they are up to. Also most of my closest friends went all over for college and Facebook lets me keep in touch and still be part of their lives. Lots of my parent’s friends like to keep up with me and see my photos as I grow up.

My digital life as a whole has dramatically changed since the beginning of my journey. I have grown up and matured a great deal. To some extent I'm a different person than I was when my social media life began. I have been through many things in my life that I didn't even see coming and have grown from these experiences. I have met new people that I didn't know back then that now I don't see how I ever lived without them. I have enjoyed looking back through my Facebook life over the past 5 years. I’m interested to see where the next 5 years take me and looking back on my Facebook life 5 years from now. Seeing where my life has taken me and what I will be doing with my life and spending it with other people I know and love.