AIM

I had a revelation recently that compared AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) to Facebook.  I think I joined Facebook sometime in 2006.  I could probably login to find out for sure but that is somewhere in the ballpark of six year that this silly social network site has been a part of my life.  I was thinking... what did we do before Facebook?

Then I remembered our little "away messages" on AIM.  You could say what you planned on doing that afternoon.  Some people would update after each activity throughout the day while others would leave a simple song lyric up for everyone to ponder.  

AIM WAS our Facebook!  How funny is that?  I remember that little ping every time someone would login.  I remember "hiding" myself so that other people didn't know I was online and could see who was on and what they were posting.  Isn't that kind of what Facebook is?  

I have been thankful that we didn't have Facebook and Twitter when I was a teenager.  There is too much angst and emotional trauma at that stage in life.  A teenager doesn't understand that those emotions are temporary.  They don't realize that people really DO understand how you feel and some of them very well could be just as intelligent as you are.  

I'm currently reading "Where I Belong" by Emily Giffin and there is a lot of talk about the 90's and music.  I saw a post by the Blue Eyed Bride after she finished this book and the time period was taking her back as well. While transferring music from an old computer to my MacBook Pro this weekend I was listening to some old school Dashboard Confessional that took me right back to undergrad.  Isn't it funny how some songs can make you feel EXACTLY how you felt back then.  That's okay... thinking about pulling up old Facebook status' telling the world what those feelings are... that makes me cringe.  This officially makes me old.  But to be fair, I've always been conservative so only half of my cringing can be blamed on age.  

I get the fun job of helping clients clean up their act all of the time.  I see them realize... "Wow.  I probably should have put all of that out there."  And by then, there is usually not much you can really do about it.  

Now on to the REAL problem... what the heck is going to be out there by the time my little sweet Brianna is twelve?  It scares the bejezzus out of me.  I think I'm going to start praying for guidance now.  Maybe in eleven years I'll be able to deal with what is to come!  YIKES!