July 10, 1990… 12:01 PM (give or take about 12 hours)

The world was given the gift of me.  The first people to see me were not my mother and father, but the staff of zombie-robot nurses who delivered me… Okay, so I do not have a major technologically relevant event on the day I was born.  Maybe my grandchildren will be born at the hands of zombie-robot nurses, or better yet, maybe my granddaughter-in-law will BE a zombie-robot nurse.

Either way, this is the diary of every technological event I can remember (or at least several of them).  This is the best way for me to see how technology has changed me.

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1994, Summer

My father inherited some land upstate when his father passed, and a small house on the acres of the estate.  It was a small farmhouse, but I had been there a few times.  My father had taught me to drive the tractor (yes I realize I was four, but it was my fourth or fifth time driving it and I never had a problem before).  The tractor I was used to was a manual transmission (cannot drive stick shift today, but apparently I could when I was four).  This day, my father made me use the other tractor, it was automatic.  He contends that I kicked the manual into high gear too much, but at least I knew how to drive it.  Anyway, new tractor, tried to shift gears when there were no gears to shift.  Drove through a wall on the porch side of the house. I will pause for all your applause.

..

Thank you I appreciate that.  Anyway, in my father’s rage, rather than drive the tractor over my legs, he brought me into the basement, gave me a SEGA Genesis (remember those?) and told me not to move.  I played Sonic 2 for what seemed like 24 hours while he fixed my mess.  My first experience with video games.  This is may not seem important, but I would grow to spend more of my formative years playing video games then I would be proud to admit.

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1998, Late Summer

Preparing for 4th grade, my father bought me the computer game “JumpStart 4th Grade”.  It was all little games where I had to save robots by completing challenges in different school subjects.  Why are my games trying to teach me stuff?  Is it not horrible enough that I am forced to read… (gulp) BOOKS?  No this was not my reaction.  I loved books when I was a kid.  And I loved this game. Video games + learning?  This could catch on.  This was the first time I associated the computer with anything besides Tomb Raider and Super Mario Checkers.  I think that has to be significant, doesn’t it?

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2003, February

Peer pressure finally got to me.  Thus far in my journey I have become addicted to video games, and I have associated the computer with learning.  So we covered fun and learning, and now we add a third component, the social component.  Peer pressure of the seventh grade forced me to beg my parents to let me use AIM.  I had to talk to my friends, I just had to.  Relentless begging forced their hand, and I got on my dial-up connection and spent my hour instant messaging my friends.  We all discussed this earlier in the semester, how some of us like hiding behind the screen name or feel more comfortable expressing ourselves in writing, and I really blossomed over the internet.  I spoke much more confidently, much more fluidly, and I just felt better about myself.  And I did not stay hidden behind “GiNGaBrEdMaN03” or however I spelled it, the skills I developed online I inherited face-to-face.  What AIM gave me was a medium for which to explore my personality, and try things out.  It brought real confidence to my everyday life.  The shy and humble 12 year old developed into the comfortable 14 year old who eventually with the help of AIM, became the arrogant and cocky 17 year old.  Every bit of confidence, good or not, started with gingabredman03.

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2005, Marchish

Social networking hit an all time high (cough low cough) with the explosion of MySpace.  Everyone had one, and after 6 months of refusal, peer pressure once again took control.  I snapped some photos, I picked a catchy tune, found a nice background, and sold my soul to the devil.  It was also around this time, and a little earlier, I really began to utilize typing up papers and looking up information on a heavy basis.  With a new wireless connection, between homework and socializing, I could be on the internet from the time I got home from the park for dinner all the way until bed.  The technology I had kept at arm’s length so long was beginning to consume me.

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2007, Septemberish

After months of refusing, once again I crack. Hello FaceBook, goodbye handing in assignments early.  I cannot even wish I never had it, because it did make it easy for me to get in touch with my football team (not my high school team, the team I played for after my high school career) in terms of finding out when games were and what time.  Aside from that, wow it really was a waste of time.  Hate FaceBook.  Also, trying to keep my technologies at arm’s length, I applied to all my colleges by paper application… except of course CUNY, which does not allow that.  It was, by the way, the most difficult application process, in terms of glitches and poor site response.  But I had to do it, and of course that is the school I would end up with.

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2008, September

I received my Hunter e-mail address, and I had to actually check it.  This would mark the first time in my life I had an e-mail address that I checked more than twice a year.  That is correct.  I went eighteen years without e-mail.  Shocking?  I still do not have e-mail on my phone, I just wait until I get home to check it.  I know, how do I live?  But that is a point of pride for me.  I can live without it.  I would not even check it ever if it was not completely necessary to keep up with my classes.  I am used to it now, but it was difficult at first.  Later in this first semester of college (due to lack of ESPN at the dorms), I discovered my favorite technological advancements: blogs and podcasts.  I began reading blogs and columns from my favorite sportswriters to hear the stories I could not watch any more.  My favorite shows on ESPN were now in podcast form, and I listened to them religiously.  It really became an integral part of surviving in the dorm life.  Now I subscribe to a bunch, and I read the blogs daily, even getting restless when nothing new is posted.

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2009, Summer

I got a Twitter, which is something I did not even know I liked so much until my Twitter rant in the forum.  It is the organizer of all my information.  Everything I look for on the internet can be found on my Twitter feed.  And I have cut off many ties with Faccia Libre thanks to it.  FaceBook is now reduced only to long threads where my friends and I just add joke after joke, usually at one of our other friend’s expense.  If that is all I use FaceBook for, well, I could live with that.

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December, 2009, into the Spring Semester of 2010

This is beginning to run long, but it is almost done.  I want to mention that three classes have really progressed me even further into the technology sector I avoid.  CHC 200 I was forced to make a video as part of my group’s final project.  CHC 250 is forcing me as well.  Force holds negative connotation here, but it really is a good thing.  Knowing how to work these programs such as iMovie and create a short film is very important.  I know this because right before I began writing this diary, I just shot, edited, published, and annotated a video of me eating cheese balls.  It took me about ten minutes to get this under 90 second movie from my head onto YouTube and in front of my sister’s computer screen.  I guess those skills are useful, because I do not know what she would have done without that video.

And finally, the biggest leap I took was Alternate Worlds.  This class is changing the way I look at education; it is changing the way I experience the internet.  It is what this class is meant for, and it is beautifully shaping me in more ways than the course probably realizes.

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It is the last section here that really has changed my view on technology.  It is not for nerds or techies, and just because I love to go out and play sports does not mean there is not a place for me in cyberspace.  When I made my Twitter account, I did it as a joke.  Since then, I have come to love the affect it has on my life.  The same with e-mail.  These things are not wastes of times, they are not merely mainstream “gotta-have-its”.  No longer will I judge everything as an “internet fad”.  Technology not only makes life easier, but directly and indirectly changes life and people we are.  It is important to keep up with.  Without SEGA Genesis when I was four, without AIM at twelve, I would not be doing anything today the way I am.  I would be a menial student, a worse athlete, a lesser friend, a sub-par brother, a mediocre son, and an outright inferior person than Rob DiRe as I know him.

And my parents said that AIM was evil, shame on them.