LastSong.net

Ever since writing my last post about feeling old, I’ve been thinking about my life on the internet and how it’s evolved over the years. I first discovered the internet at the age of 12, so I suppose that since I’m now 22, I’ll consider this my 10th anniversary of sorts. I’ll start with this article and, with each successive article, I plan to cover another phase of my online life until I get all the way up to the present.

When I was 12, Pokemon was a big deal and I, embarrassingly enough, was a huge fan. One day, my father, for whatever reason, decided that it was time I signed up for my own email address. Thus, he eagerly shoved Yahoo! in my face and insisted that I set up an account. Soon afterward, with my newly created Yahoo! username on hand, I discovered the Yahoo! chatrooms and the unexpectedly large Pokemon fanbase that populated them. I don’t remember much of the experience, except that it did wonders for the speed at which I would eventually be able to type. One thing led to another and, soon enough, I had installed Yahoo! Messenger and was chatting regularly with a handful of online friends over IM. Thinking back, this probably wasn’t the safest way for a 12-year-old to pass her time, what with all the “internet predators” out there, but I suppose I lucked out as nothing ever happened to me.