My History of Social Networking

After seeing the new movie, Social Networking, about Mark Zuckerberg and the founding of Facebook, I decided to look back on my history of social networking.

I was one of the original 5 million or so Facebook users from the days when only college students could use it, by registering with their student e-mail address.

Going back to when I was in 8^th grade (1998-99) at U.L. Light Middle School, my Language Arts teacher, Mr. Granger would have his students write a weekly journal every Monday.  It gave students a chance to reflect on their lives and how they felt about different things going on.  When I wrote my last entry for Mr. Granger in early June, I wrote how I would like to start keeping a journal about my life.  Since I had no readers, I didn’t have much motivation to actually try it on my own for five more years.

In the fall of 2000, my BHS friend Mary created an e-mail address and got AIM and it sounded interesting enough that I decided to try it.  I had a group of friends that I would talk to on AIM regularly over the years, especially Mary, BJ, Lindsay, Liz, Stephanie.  In June 2001, Lindsay introduced me to Ashley C. on AIM and we got to know each other pretty well before we finally met in person at a student council meeting in Sept. 2001.

In the spring of 2004, my BHS friends Stephanie, Lindsay, and Liz started to write a blog on the website Xanga.  Since it was our first year of college, it was a good way to keep up with high school friends.  Several others and myself decided to jump on board with this trend as spring semester ended in May.  Over the next two years I would write about different things that were going on in my life, including people I knew who married, died, and my views on sports and politics.  I would sum up the years events in a year-end review, which I continue to use blogs.  There were a lot of interesting surveys on there too.

Early in 2006, I moved my blogs from Xanga to MySpace, where there were more users.  MySpace began to die out in 2009, so in late 2010, I created my blog at BlogSpot.  Over the years, I have posted blogs less frequently, but I still make it a point to keep something going that accounts for the major events of my life.  There are many social networks available, but Facebook serves the needs of just about everything except blogging.  I will use Facebook status to give people updates on my blog.  During the first few years, MySpace had more people on it, but once Facebook lifted its restrictions, MySpace dropped off.  I no longer have Xanga and MySpace accounts, but I backed my favorite post up on a USB key so I have access to them.  In the meantime, Twitter began popular, especially with younger views.  Given my wordy journalistic way of expressing myself, I have no desire to use Twitter, which restricts post to 140 characters.

Facebook first came to Ohio in early 2005 at Ohio St. and Miami of Oxford.  The first two people I knew that used it were Liz F. (Miami student) and Megan L.  Megan had transferred to the UA, but she was able to use her OSU e-mail to get on.  By the beginning of summer, Facebook came to UA and I was signed up before long.  Kent St. got in around the same time and my friends at Malone, Adam and Brett, were on soon after.  In September 2005, a high school version of Facebook was founded and a year later, everyone over the age of 13 could register.

Facebook has changed significantly in the decade that I have been on it.  Most have been good, but there's a few things I don't like.  The News Feed was introduced in 2006, which helped people to see what others were posting to their page.  In 2008, the chat featured was introduced, which led to the demise of AIM.  By 2009, Facebook began allowing users to post photo albums (which have improved in quality over the years), which I do on a moderate level, and videos, which I still don't use.  Facebook status was becoming popular by then, but I was slow to use it because I didn't know what type of content to post on it.  I have come to enjoy using the status as a social commentary for sports and current events, with the occasional posts with links to article I really enjoy.  The creation of the Timeline added  great convenience because scrolling down if I wanted to look through my Facebook history was becoming very tedious.  The one thing I liked better about the original Facebook was the simplicity of the About page.  All of the user's basic information was listed on their home page in narrative form, instead of on multiple places with links like it is now.  I now have about 700 friends on Facebook.

2010 Year-End Review

January

On January 12, a major earthquake rocks the island of Hati, which claimed the lives of 230,000 people. 

Father Tarsis and church member Mrs. Bogner ask me to join the vestry, which I agree to and was voted upon at the annual parish meeting.  I meet with the 10-12 member vestry once a month.

The US Supreme Court rules in favor of Citizens United in their case against the Federal Election Commission on the basis of freedom of speech.  This opens the floodgates for lobbyist to donate to political campaigns and overturns any previous campaign legislation reform.

February

After not hearing from him in several years, Mom’s Uncle Dave gave her a phone call.  Since I’m working on family genealogy and he’s Grandma Muffet’s only surviving sibling, I wrote him a few letters with questions.  He wrote back with some very useful feedback.

I was thrilled to see the New Orleans Saints win Super Bowl XLIV, over the Indianapolis Colts.  It was a great story for QB Drew Brees and the city of New Orleans, who needed each other after Brees was injured and Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in 2005.  The Super Bowl trophy presentation was highlighted by Brees holding his infant son.

Valentine's Day was about to pass on as another meaningless day until I found out a few days later that Cousin Nikki got engaged to her longtime boyfriend Andrew.  They plan to marry on October 16, Andrew's 29th birthday. 

March

The US Congress, with support from President Barack Obama, passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.  I supported health care reform, but I had some questions regarding the specifics of this particular legislation, so I had mixed feelings on it.

The usual excitement of March Madness and my birthday came and went.  Butler nearly pulled off a major upset against Duke in the National Championship Game, before falling 60-59 in the final seconds.

On March 31, Dad and I went to watch the Cleveland Cavaliers defeat the Milwaukee Bucks at the Q, 101-98.

April

Nikki followed Andrew from Cincinnati to Baltimore on April 1 and started her new job at McCormick in Sparks, MD (30 miles north of Baltimore). 

The largest marine oil spill in history of the petroleum industry took place in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20 by a British Petroleum oil rig.  The leak was capped on July 15 after almost five million gallons leaked into the water.

After applying with the US Census Bureau in November, I was hired.  I went to training the last week of the month.  I was assigned to a group of 20-25 people and they were very pleasant to work w/, while making some friends in the process.

May

I worked for the US Census Bureau throughout the month.  I was a non-response follow-up enumerator, which means I went to residences that didn't send their forms in to make sure they got complete.  Most of the people were easy to deal with.  Most of them lost their form, forgot to fill it out, were too lazy to do it, or procrastinated on it.  A few refused to complete the form.  There were also empty homes that I had to talk to neighbors about.  I worked evenings and some weekend around my Acme schedule.  The homes were located on the east side of Barberton and south of Waterloo Rd. in Akron Kenmore.

I went to U.L. Light to visit 8th grade social studies teacher Mr. Ursetti before his retirement.  He was one of my all-time favorite teachers so I wanted to let him know what I was doing now and thank him one last time.  I saw several other former teachers while I was there, including 7th grade social studies teacher Mr. Ward (who I hadn't seen since I went there), art teacher Mr. Reichenbach, and 6th grade math-language arts teacher Mrs. Falkenstein.

The Cavs made an earlier than expected exit from the 2010 NBA Playoffs, losing to the Boston Celtics in Game 6 of the NBA Finals.  The low point was LeBron James’ lethargic performance in Game 5, which turned out to be his last game at the Q as a member of the Cavs.  This followed a season in which the Cavs had the NBA’s best record and LeBron winning his second straight MVP award.

Cousin Krissy, her husband Brett, and their daughter Kate came to visit Mother's Day weekend.  They took bedroom furniture back home to Cincinnati for to get ready for their new daughter, Ellie, who will arrive in August.  I had to work all weekend as usual, but I got to see them on my lunch break.  Nikki visited the following weekend and we went out for ice cream at Durbin's Magic Freeze.  On May 30, Krissy had a party at her house for Kate's second birthday, which was on May 25.  I went down w/ my parents and it was good to hit the road as a family for a change.

June

Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga was one out from throwing a perfect game against the Cleveland Indians when umpire Jim Joyce botched the last call of the game.  At first there was an outburst by everyone on this terrible call, but after Joyce owned up to his mistake (which a lot of umps don’t), which Galarraga accepted, it quickly became a feel good story.  Despite this, there were several other perfect games and no-hitters this year, as team ERAs this season were the lowest since 1992.

After a long hiring freeze, Acme started hiring again to make up for lost employees and people taking summer vacations.

I generally don’t follow tennis, but one match this summer was one to never be forgotten.  In the Wimbledon Championship, John Isner defeated Nicolas Mahut in the world's longest tennis match.  It lasted two days, in which 183 games were played over 11 hours, 5 minutes.

3rd Cousin Becky asked me to go out for her 21st birthday on June 30, but I was unable to attend due to work. 

July

I was anxiously awaiting LeBron James to decide if he was going to remain with the Cavs or not.  He declared free agency on July 1 and on July 8 he made “The Decision” in the hour long spectacle broadcasted on ESPN.  He announced he would be joining buddies Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh, playing for the Miami Heat.  This announcement will have a major impact of the future of the Cavs and even the Cleveland economy.  I found the whole thing to be disgusting and I no longer plan to support LeBron.  This included me donating my LeBron shirts to the Salvation Army.

I took my 1^st week of paid vacation from July 18-24.  Among the highlights of the week were:

• Sunday: Scott and I visited historic Tuscarawas County, where we saw Ft. Laurens, Zoar, and Gnadenhutten.
• Wednesday: Adam, Scott, and I went bowling at Charger Lanes.
• Friday: Scott and I visited the Mountaineer Casino in Chester, WV.  It was my 1^st trip to a casino.  On the way home, we stopped to visit the Packard Museum in Warren, OH.  In the evening, Adam and I went to Lake Anna for a rock-in-roll concert.
• Aunt Edna celebrated her 85^th birthday on July 22 with a family get-together at her daughter Elaine’s house.  I presented her with an updated version of the Muffet Family Tree that I gave her for her 80^th birthday in 2005.

On July 30, I attended a going away party at David B’s for a few of my friends from Barberton schools.  While I was there, it was exciting to see many more of my old friends who I hadn’t seen in several years.

August

Elizabeth Grace “Ellie” Little, the daughter of Cousins Krissy and Brett Little, was born on August 17 in Cincinnati.

On August 28, Dad and I visited Uncle Larry and his son, Brent, at the neighboring residence in Marion County.  Dad gave advice to Brent on fixing his 1955 Chevy Bel-Air.  On the way home, Dad and I stopped to visit Uncle Ernie and Aunt Jan at their home.

October

After almost 70 days trapped in a mine in Chile, 35 miners were finally rescued, resulting in an improbable, but miracle ending.

Cousin Nikki and Andrew got married on October 16 at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Barberton.  Their reception was followed at the Akron Art Museum.  Their rehearsal dinner was the days before at the Winery at Wolf Creek in Copley, OH.  I’ll write more on this in a separate blog.

Highlighted by Pittsburgh Steelers LB James Harrison, the NFL begins to crack down hard on helmet to helmet hits due to concerns over concussions.

Acme 14 undergoes a moderate remodeling phase.  The entire store received a paint job, consisting of several colors.  Health and Beauty isles are turned diagonally to help direct traffic behind the huge floral cooler at the store’s center.  Other changes include moving the magazines to Aisle 1 so they are more visible, a new deli cooler, and removing Register 10 since it’s rarely used.

Aunt Kathy and I attended a Democrat rally in Canton on October 30.  Former President Bill Clinton was the feature speaker, with Ohio Governor Ted Strickland, US Senator Sherrod Brown, and Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray present.  At the end of the rally, I met Governor Strickland, shaking his hand and receiving his autograph.

November

Democrats took a beating in the midterm elections, losing control of the US House of Representatives and practically every office in the state of Ohio.  Republican John Kasich defeated Strickland and John Boehner of Ohio will replace Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the US House, effective January.

Mom’s immediate family got together for the usual Thanksgiving dinner at Grandma Maybin and Susie’s (Uncle Tom’s mom and sister) house on Nov. 26.  It was the first Thanksgiving for Cousin Krissy’s daughter, Ellie.

December

LeBron James returns to the Q for the first time since leaving the Cavs for the Miami Heat.  He is soundly booed, but his teammate and former Cavalier, Zydrunas Illgauskas was cheered on.  Unfortunately, the Cavs got pounded by the Heat, 118-90.

The University of Akron men’s soccer team wins the NCAA Division I Championship with a victory over Michigan.  This gives the UA its first major sports championship.

The lame-duck US Congress turned out some major legislation in their final weeks.  Republicans got their tax cuts for the wealthy in exchange for Democrats getting long-term unemployment benefits extended.  Democrats and Republicans also come together to overturn the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy from 1993 overturned, now allowing homosexuals to openly serve in the US military.

Acme offers a $5000 buyout plus next year’s paid vacation and personal days to any takers.  Congrats to co-workers Wiley Brooks, Wes Berisferd, Al Mason, and Nancy Thacker on their retirement.

I took my 2^nd week of paid vacation from Dec. 5-11.  Among the highlights of the week were:

• Setting up Christmas decorations in the house.
• Writing out envelopes for Christmas cards.
• Attending the Barberton boys’ basketball home opener.
• Christmas shopping.
• Starting my new blog and cleaning up my computer and USB keys.

The US Census Bureau releases their finding from the 2010 census.  Ohio will be one of two states (along with New York) to lose two congressional seats in the US House of Representatives.

On December 24, Scott and I ushered a Christmas Eve service at St. Andrew’s for the first time.

On December 25, Mom’s immediate family got together for the usual Christmas lunch and opening of gift at Aunt Kathy’s house.  It was the first Christmas for Cousin Krissy’s daughter, Ellie.

On December 27, I attended the Harlem Globetrotters game at the Q with Mom.  Once again, they defeated the Washington Generals, this time by a score of 90-81.

Several new Cleveland Browns' finished off promising seasons.  The star of the team was RB Peyton Hillis, in addition to three rookie draft picks DB Joe Haden, FS TJ Ward, and QB Colt McCoy. 

Congrats to the following individuals who either married or became engaged in 2010, including Lauren Ondecker, Lindsay Foley, Ruthanne Gooslin, Dustin Gillenwater, Alyssa Smart, and Kyle Suboticki.