A Life Before Facebook

Just before I start, I had a look at my hit counter today and it said 666 - how terrifying is that?! The end of the world is approaching. Time to stock up on Pot Noodles.

Anyway, I've had a lack of any kind of inspiration for a few days (mainly due to the essays I have to do being started and a total cloud of procrastination smothering them [I like that image!]) and then I got this whilst washing my hands. A bizarre spark yes, but a spark nonetheless.

Can you actually imagine a life without any form of social networking? It'd be very hypocritical of me to blast any Facebook/Myspace/Bebo users, purely based on the fact that I'm a member on all 3 of those sites (not so much Myspace anymore - links are on navbar up top!).

Firstly, what I think's quite cool is the 'evolution' of these sites. What I mean by this is that everyone has a 'Social Network Timeline' of sorts, some of these sites die out while some stay dominant due to loads of reasons. I'll compile mine and I'll explain them -

1. Think.com - Does anyone remember these? How at primary school you got signed up to the fun that was Think.com? Leaving 'stickies' (how wrong does that sound?!) on people's profiles? Using some horrifyingly bad HTML to swamp your page with crap MIDIs and floating bubbles and flashing text? Think.com was brilliant at the time! You just come out of P6 and then you get to make your own website (of sorts)! My memories a bit hazy, but you got a crazy wee dog as the moderator, and if you tried to use any form of swearing you'd be flagged and given a wee punishment exercise by your teacher! Think.com was braw, it'd be pure nostalgia to be able to reactivate my account and have a wee nosy. Unfortunately, something tells me it would never ever be used again, and the fact that they disabled it (for whatever reason) after P7 means that Mark McKeich's Think.com profile is long gone. But those were the days.
2. Myspace - I think I was co-erced into getting one of these, actually (wasn't everyone?). After a wee dabble in Freewebs and the blight on the internet that is Habbo Hotel (bobba! BOBBA! BOOOBBBBAAAA!), I had Myspace. And it brought so much fun. At this point, I don't think Bebo was as popular, and, in my grand opinion was way to chavvy for me. Only the cool kids used Myspace. The heaps of pictures. The 'Top 8 Friends'. The crazy profile layouts. The snappy about me's. The ever-changing profile songs. The bulliten wars/quizzes/shoutouts/nags/moans. Myspace was well cool.
3. Bebo - I eventually caved after being really bored in Majorca and made a Bebo, which at first, I signed into once every century. It didn't really appeal to me much. But then, in the past few years, something odd happened. Myspace suddenly became boring. It just happened (for me anyway). And then Bebo became the main site, although there were still the Myspace loyalists. Anyway, the only cool thing about Bebo is being able to have an 'Other Half'. And even that's pretty boring now.
4. Facebook - And then, two months ago, I got Facebook. 'Nuff said, really.

But yeah, I'm now stuck in limbo between Bebo and Facebook. It's a sad state of affairs. Back to the point though, can you actually imagine life without these sites? Let's be completely honest here, they are the exact same as a mobile phone (which are already rendered completely useless with MSN Messenger). And saying that, you can share pictures on MSN now anyway...so what's the point? How do we all have such an interest in other people's lives so much that we can put off doing anything by staring blankly at a slow-updating live news feed? It's just mental. D'you think if none of these sites existed people would actually do work on time? Get eight hours of sleep a night? Not use the terms 'Facebook rape', 'Bebo stalk', or any other crazy abbreviations that they've created? Did 'lol' actually exist before MSN?

It's be pretty cool to go back in time and see what life was like without Facebook, or, to a more extreme POV, without the internet. Do you not remember how innocent your youth was before hearing that dreaded dial up modem and being subjected to all these social networks?

I say bring back Think.com. Actually, combine them all. Make 'www.myfacethinkbebo.com'. Create another, when broken down to it's actual point, completely useless site.

Anyway, I'm off. Time to check my Facebook.

Mark, out.
xxx