Being Online Autobiography

I think I might be considered a bit too old to be a digital native, although I grew up with computers in the home. My father was a computer technician/programmer with Pharaoh Computers in the early 1980's (before the bottom fell out of that business), and one of my first memories is gluing together all the little bits and pieces of the motherboard on the large mainframe computer we had in our basement. I was often told that if I wasn't loved so much, I would have been killed for that.

But, basically, we always had computers around the house, although I was way behind the curve in obtaining other technologies (like cell phones, my first of which was purchased last year). Now I have my iPod and my cell and all those other goodies...

I used the internet a lot growing up, mostly because my father used my siblings and I to test things. He taught us BASIC and how to navigate DOS and the like, and we were some of the first people to sign up for AOL when it became available back in the early '90s (my first screen name, in fact, was Lilith for all the obvious symbolic reasons).

One of the most horrific moments of my childhood (aside from gluing the motherboard), was when I was playing around in DOS without paying attention and deleted a necessary boot file for our family PC when I was 14. I was so horrified of what my father might do upon discovery that I grabbed a phone book and began dialing computer specialists listed in the yellow pages...the first person I actually reached, a man named Alan Judy, knew my father and knew what lay in store for me, so he talked me through over the phone restoring the computer. I met him for the first time in person 4 years ago and he loves reminding me of that fact.

Now I mainly use the web for communication, information gathering, acquiring information/items and publicity.

• I blog on my own website and for WVU Study Abroad, in addition to sharing my photography and writing online on my site.
  
• I use Myspace and Facebook as social networking tools (many of my friends live in other countries, so they're very useful).
  
• I use the Internet to look up submissions guidelines for poetry and photography symposia/publications/exhibits, to research hard-to-find or newer information that may not have made it into print form yet.
  
• I teach ESL and I use a Yahoogroups listserv to communicate about pop culture tidbits and to share other types of information with my class.
  
• I subscribe to daily Chinese and Japanese podcasts, in addition to regularly downloading philosophical/linguistic/political/historical podcasts from a variety of sites.
  
• I use the internet to follow blogs like the DCist, the Shanghaiist, Plastic.com, the Huffington Post and the like.
  
• WheneverI come across a new artist or friend, I generally do a web search for them as well.
  
• I get my news online from mainly the BBC and from other smaller sources.
  
• I use a few pen-pal sites to help improve my Chinese and Japanese, in addition to using interactive websites daily for several of my courses (Chinese and Macroeconomics mainly)
  
• I watch tons of Netflix tidbits late at night in hotels while traveling (and, if I'm being honest, sometimes during the middle of the day between classes).
  
• I read some web-published 'zines and comics.
  
• I use JSTOR and the like to read academic articles and do research.
  
• I get a lot of music and movies online (I don't have cable or anything else.)
  
• I buy things online much more than I do in stores.
  
• I use Altavista Babelfish, like, every two hours.
• I listen to some webcast radio stations, like KILI from the Lakota Nation.
• Etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.
  

All told, I probably spend about 4-5 hours a day online...I know, that's a lot. But I am always online even when I'm writing in order to research or clarify, in addition to the fact that I work for NAS department here helping with photography and their website (in addition to being tapped by an educational consultancy, Helianthus, to help corral their upcoming online networking forum)...so, yeah, I am constantly connected. I'm NEVER without my laptop and actually have to make it a point to get away from the computer and electronic things for a set period of time each day so I don't just meld into a virtual world...or develop some kind of illness from spending all day sitting down...

So, there. My "Being Online Autobiography". I am online way too much.