Techipedia | Tamar Weinberg - Latest Comments in Fifteen Years of Online Social Interactions

Re: Fifteen Years of Online Social Interactions

tamar — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 10:02:57 -0000

Mikebingo, you weren't *that* much older. Only 4 years' difference!

Re: Fifteen Years of Online Social Interactions

mikebingo — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 09:03:51 -0000

I enjoyed this post, thanks! I think I feel a bit old now. I was 16 in 1993. :)

Re: Fifteen Years of Online Social Interactions

Lori — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 23:38:55 -0000

Yes, please do! When my parents were over for the 4th of July, we were talking about SEO and my dad said, "Lori, you are the only person I know who understands how the internet works". It was an amazing compliment, and just shows how far I've come :)

Re: Fifteen Years of Online Social Interactions

tamar — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 23:25:04 -0000

Hi Lori, thanks for sharing that awesome story. I might have to pass it onto my computerphobic relatives :)

Re: Fifteen Years of Online Social Interactions

Lori — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 23:22:41 -0000

Wow, I really enjoyed reading how you came to be online...it's really clear to me that the younger generations (I'm 36) have such a huge headstart on the rest of us. I didn't really grow up with computers, so it's been harder to make it all feel like second nature.

I refused to get an email address in college (early 90's) because I was afraid. There, I said it. I didn't understand what email was and I didn't want to be a part of it.

Then, I married a computer genuis. He insisted that I learn how to use a computer, and got us a dial-up connection to the internet. I used it tentatively for a long time.

What really got me online, and this is going to sound strange, was the death of Princess Diana. I spent hours on forums and at news sites, reading people's thoughts about her and posting my own. That sort of broke open the internet for me and took away my fear of being part of it all.

I've since learned never to say "never" when it comes to what I can or can't do online - proud moments for me include learning how to make my own favicon and getting sitelinks for my store. See, a non-tech girl can get the hang of life online! It's funny that I run a business that's entirely web based (no storefront, and I sell PDFs). If I can do it, anyone can.

Re: Fifteen Years of Online Social Interactions

AJ — Tue, 27 May 2008 14:51:24 -0000

Dang mark-up...

Re: Fifteen Years of Online Social Interactions

AJ — Tue, 27 May 2008 14:50:25 -0000

Ah, you were one of the n00bs during the Eternal September. As the wikipedia article suggests, there are still people waiting for October 1. Hope springs eternal, I guess.

Other than that, I loved your article.

Re: Fifteen Years of Online Social Interactions

Andrea Hill — Sun, 25 May 2008 19:17:34 -0000

I love how "social media" is a big buzzword now, but like you say, there has been social interaction online for a looong time! I date my development of online communities back to 95, when I started building and mentoring others at geocities.com. The notion of community was big there, you picked a "neighbourhood" and received a URL that read like a street address. A map showed your street and which houses were occupied or vacant.

I then mined links for dmoz - the Open Directory Project, which was a bit of a folksonomy because volunteer editors like myself could add or edit categories as we saw fit (although generally a single editor would be in charge of a particular domain).

I've been on livejournal, wow, since 98 or 99?

I then worked on a site geared towards at-risk youth, which encouraged community through volunteer authors, as well as bulletin boards and chat rooms.

That was all in the last millennium. While the tools to leverage social media are much more available to Everyman, that's not to say the notion of communicating online wasn't there!

Re: Fifteen Years of Online Social Interactions

Kerstin Baker-Ash — Fri, 23 May 2008 09:55:21 -0000

Whoa... blast from the past. Definitely remember that good 'ol AOL disk, and being excited that I could finally get on to AOL from Canada. Also remember my father being more than unpleased with me for racking up those hourly charges.

I wonder if the AOL/Bebo deal will breathe some life back into it? Meh. Probably not.

Re: Fifteen Years of Online Social Interactions

Dana — Thu, 22 May 2008 17:49:54 -0000

This Post is fantastic. My office mates and I were just talking about AOL "back in the day" and chatting with friends online. This just put the icing on the cake for our afternoon!

Re: Fifteen Years of Online Social Interactions

webprofessor — Thu, 22 May 2008 11:25:31 -0000

Wow that brought back a lot of memories. I miss the early days of AOL chat rooms ... I made a lot of friends and got a lot of dates in real life that way.

Re: Fifteen Years of Online Social Interactions

jon burg — Wed, 21 May 2008 07:44:13 -0000

Great post! I've been saying this all along. Our behaviors aren't changing, it's the channel that is evolving, and we are mutually adaptive.

AOL had it all. Now it's scattered. Any bets on where this going one year out?

Re: Fifteen Years of Online Social Interactions

Coop — Tue, 20 May 2008 17:32:38 -0000

Great article. Thanks for taking me back... way back. Fun stuff, and I remember it all. I even have an old AOL disk like in the photo, and I still have my first laptop, a Compaq Portable 286. Thing weighs a ton. It wasn't very portable. :-)

Re: Fifteen Years of Online Social Interactions

Brett Borders — Tue, 20 May 2008 14:32:52 -0000

I'm personally delighted by the transformation, although I find it fatiguing to keep up with the sheer speed of the acceleration. There aren't enough hours in the day.

Re: Fifteen Years of Online Social Interactions

ob81 — Mon, 19 May 2008 21:45:40 -0000

Nice write-up! I did a post like this a while back. I couldn't remember everything so descriptive like you did. :)

Re: Fifteen Years of Online Social Interactions

aviwilensky — Mon, 19 May 2008 18:58:35 -0000

i didn't say the post was misleading, but rather the title. Perhaps a better one would be "MY Fifteen Years of Online Social Interactions"?

Re: Fifteen Years of Online Social Interactions

Andrew Hanelly — Mon, 19 May 2008 18:58:08 -0000

Likewise! Like I said, long-time reader, first-time commenter (here, at least). And, obviously, big-time fan!

Keep up the awesome work!

Re: Fifteen Years of Online Social Interactions

tamar — Mon, 19 May 2008 18:55:08 -0000

I like you, Andrew :D

Re: Fifteen Years of Online Social Interactions

Andrew Hanelly — Mon, 19 May 2008 18:51:42 -0000

@avi: she didn't claim it was a "history" of social interactions online, but rather, her take on it.

re-read the first line! :)

Re: Fifteen Years of Online Social Interactions

tamar — Mon, 19 May 2008 18:44:31 -0000

Online social interactions existed way before, and I even was on BBSes (but in the late nineties). The fifteen years refers to my personal journey.

Re: Fifteen Years of Online Social Interactions

aviwilensky — Mon, 19 May 2008 18:42:49 -0000

great post, but the title is a bit misleading. online social interactions are quite a bit older than than 15 years. remember usenet? alt.binary.*? that dates back to 1979. so wouldn't that be 29 years? correct me if im wrong.

Re: Fifteen Years of Online Social Interactions

Sara Ferguson — Mon, 19 May 2008 15:32:41 -0000

Now I feel old. Where is my walker?

I was surfing BBS way before the internet was known outside of geek circles. I used the computers at college at the time. When I finally got a computer it was a 386SX/33Mhz with 4MB RAM and a 180MB hard drive. I paid $1800.00 for it and got a 2400 modem with it. The case was a full tower and without anything in it weighed around 50lbs since it was steel. That was in 1992.

And that AOL disk is an eye soar. I was on AOL for a very very short time. Hated it because they wanted you only to stay on their site. They also didn't like me being connected the entire weekend either. Lets just say I downloaded a lot back then. ;) I got so many AOL disks that I would find new uses for them. Coasters, frisbees, chew toys for the dog, or I would find a new way to destroy them each time.

I suppose this is why I get looked at funny when I mentioned words like; Telnet, Gopher, Archie, BBS, or USENET. Most people now don't realize that the entire internet isn't made up of just http://www...

I like this post but I really feel old now. Where are my happy pills and walker?

Sara

Re: Fifteen Years of Online Social Interactions

Andrew Hanelly — Mon, 19 May 2008 15:06:21 -0000

@ mommy: that was the cutest damn thing I've ever seen on this site.

Good for you guys : )

Re: Fifteen Years of Online Social Interactions

KdFrawg — Mon, 19 May 2008 14:57:53 -0000

I'm one of the older one, Tamar. I started on Compuserve CB Simulator in 1981. ;o)

Thanks for the great column!

Re: Fifteen Years of Online Social Interactions

mommy — Mon, 19 May 2008 14:27:35 -0000

This article was most articulate, and thought provoking. To remember every detail, every year, purchase prices and all is quite intriguing. I am so proud of you and your efforts to convey your observations, evaluations, and your perceptions to others. I commend you always, Tamar, for all of your contributions of knowledge you share with others.
Love, Mom