Facebook, To-be or Not-to-be
Since the early day of inter-networking, in particular, the now ubiquitous Internet, virtual "social networks" have gone a long way.
I, and most of the 60s and 70s boys and girls, are the privileged bunch who are fortunate enough to experienced the following transition from the industrial-era to IT-era.
1970s
When we were kids, we experience the "kampung-style" life. We played 'masak-masak', we climbed trees, catched fishes, topless and bear-foot. There were no "personal computer". Computers were still fiction to the layman on the street.
1980s
When we were at teen, we touched the true "personal computer" for the first time. A true "personal computer" with "monitor", keyboard and CPU all situated at the same place. For me, I still can remember very vividly the moment I turned on a "personal computer", for the first time, when I was in Form-2. The first computer that I turned on was an Apple computer running the then Motorola 68000 microprocessor. Operating system was, if I am not wrong, some very early version of Apply's proprietary OS. At that time, the battle between Apple and IBM had just began. IBM engaged Microsoft for their OS and opened up their interface standard for the so-called "clone". Suddenly, there were so many Taiwanese "IBM clones", and DOS operating system was package free of charge for the computer user... and the rest are history.
During my secondary day, "personal computer" has no internal hard-disk. "Mouse" was rodent running in the smelly longkang at night. Forget about window-based user interface. Forget about 'multi-tasking'. Internet was still a research subject.
1991 to 1994
Then I went to college. IBM and its clone had finally won the PC marketing warfare. OS was Microsoft-based text-based DOS-5. PC started to be shipped with 4M RAM and 80M hard-disk. Yes, it was 80M hard-disk! For the more adventurous user, you might choose to install Windows-3 that has to be "launched" by typing "win" at the C:\ prompt. If you did that, your hard-disk would start blinking non-stop as your pathetic RAM has ran low. Windows or PC crashed was part of our life. Printer printed through 25-pin printer port. "Mouse" was finally 'roller-ball' gadget with a tail hooked to the then COM port.
Back in the early days of college in 1991, I finally came across the term "The Internet". That was about the time "The Internet" has defined what "inter-networking" should look like in Singapore. I still can remember that, in one afternoon, my lecturer excitedly told us that the college had received the first email from a lecturer in UK... and it was 'free'! We have no idea of what email was... and how it could change our life at that time. All we know it was a passage of text received from UK almost instantly, 'free-of-charge'.
1994, 1995
1994, uni-day. Internet started to change our life. Every student was given one (or more) email account upon enrolment to college. There were no hotmail nor yahoo nor WorldWideWeb. It was the FIRST TIME I joined a social network in the virtual world. No... it wasn't 'facebook' nor 'msn'... there wasn't www yet. Windows still hang frequently. The first social network I joined and got "addicted to" was known as IRC (Internet Relay Chat). As there were no www and Windows was not stable, IRC was a 'text' based virtual chat room running on UNIX, very much like the later ICQ and MSN. I remembered that I got so addicted that I could spent more than 5 hours chatting using 'text based' screen and keyboard. That was when I practice 10-finger typing to the fullest!
Then, it was Windows 95, obviously, in 1995. Now, PC came with harddisk of >120M, with 64M RAM. Branded as the most-tested Windows ever, Windows 95 had created such a hype at that time... very much like the i-series product now. It was a "must have" if you want to 'looked cool and advanced' at that time. I still remember I did a small study on the marketing strategy of Windows 95 for my short 15-minute presentation for the "communication skill" class. Unfortunately, Windows 95 still caused the PC to hang, now, in a different way. When Windows 95 hang, we started to see "blue screen". We do still see "blue screen" now.
At about the same time, WWW started to rule. It was Netscape v.s. Microsoft for the web-browser battle. The "in" social network was ICQ. I used it oftenly for pass-time... but didn't get addicted.
Second half of 1990s
Then, we got our first job. Netscape disappeared. Social network of the time was MSN... the Microsoft-based social net. At that time, due to the busy schedule of an young working adult, I started to feel that social network was such a waste of time.
2000s
It is the age of Facebook. Having gone through the age of IRC, ICQ, MSN across 2 decades, I was reluctant to participate in Facebook. I reckon Facebook is just another form of social network that will go down-hill one day, when there is a newer application in future. I have been "diving" (instead of surfing) in the Facebook-sphere for the past few years.
Imagine what would Facebook be if:
- email was invented AFTER Facebook?
- telephone was invented AFTER Facebook?
However, recently, due to the lack of active Facebook exposure, I have missed out a few important events that can change my life for the pass few months. The most "stupid" one being... I didn't know that Sundown Ultra's finishing time had been changed from 16 hours to 18 hours until almost the last moment! This was, indeed, indirectly push me further in my training... but I had to endure unnecessary fear and pressure along the way.
I am now, seriously, thinking that Facebook (or whatever it will be replaced in future) could make-or-break certain decisions we made in life... big or small.
I, and most of the 60s and 70s boys and girls, are the privileged bunch who are fortunate enough to experienced the following transition from the industrial-era to IT-era.
1970s
When we were kids, we experience the "kampung-style" life. We played 'masak-masak', we climbed trees, catched fishes, topless and bear-foot. There were no "personal computer". Computers were still fiction to the layman on the street.
1980s
When we were at teen, we touched the true "personal computer" for the first time. A true "personal computer" with "monitor", keyboard and CPU all situated at the same place. For me, I still can remember very vividly the moment I turned on a "personal computer", for the first time, when I was in Form-2. The first computer that I turned on was an Apple computer running the then Motorola 68000 microprocessor. Operating system was, if I am not wrong, some very early version of Apply's proprietary OS. At that time, the battle between Apple and IBM had just began. IBM engaged Microsoft for their OS and opened up their interface standard for the so-called "clone". Suddenly, there were so many Taiwanese "IBM clones", and DOS operating system was package free of charge for the computer user... and the rest are history.
During my secondary day, "personal computer" has no internal hard-disk. "Mouse" was rodent running in the smelly longkang at night. Forget about window-based user interface. Forget about 'multi-tasking'. Internet was still a research subject.
1991 to 1994
Then I went to college. IBM and its clone had finally won the PC marketing warfare. OS was Microsoft-based text-based DOS-5. PC started to be shipped with 4M RAM and 80M hard-disk. Yes, it was 80M hard-disk! For the more adventurous user, you might choose to install Windows-3 that has to be "launched" by typing "win" at the C:\ prompt. If you did that, your hard-disk would start blinking non-stop as your pathetic RAM has ran low. Windows or PC crashed was part of our life. Printer printed through 25-pin printer port. "Mouse" was finally 'roller-ball' gadget with a tail hooked to the then COM port.
Back in the early days of college in 1991, I finally came across the term "The Internet". That was about the time "The Internet" has defined what "inter-networking" should look like in Singapore. I still can remember that, in one afternoon, my lecturer excitedly told us that the college had received the first email from a lecturer in UK... and it was 'free'! We have no idea of what email was... and how it could change our life at that time. All we know it was a passage of text received from UK almost instantly, 'free-of-charge'.
1994, 1995
1994, uni-day. Internet started to change our life. Every student was given one (or more) email account upon enrolment to college. There were no hotmail nor yahoo nor WorldWideWeb. It was the FIRST TIME I joined a social network in the virtual world. No... it wasn't 'facebook' nor 'msn'... there wasn't www yet. Windows still hang frequently. The first social network I joined and got "addicted to" was known as IRC (Internet Relay Chat). As there were no www and Windows was not stable, IRC was a 'text' based virtual chat room running on UNIX, very much like the later ICQ and MSN. I remembered that I got so addicted that I could spent more than 5 hours chatting using 'text based' screen and keyboard. That was when I practice 10-finger typing to the fullest!
Then, it was Windows 95, obviously, in 1995. Now, PC came with harddisk of >120M, with 64M RAM. Branded as the most-tested Windows ever, Windows 95 had created such a hype at that time... very much like the i-series product now. It was a "must have" if you want to 'looked cool and advanced' at that time. I still remember I did a small study on the marketing strategy of Windows 95 for my short 15-minute presentation for the "communication skill" class. Unfortunately, Windows 95 still caused the PC to hang, now, in a different way. When Windows 95 hang, we started to see "blue screen". We do still see "blue screen" now.
At about the same time, WWW started to rule. It was Netscape v.s. Microsoft for the web-browser battle. The "in" social network was ICQ. I used it oftenly for pass-time... but didn't get addicted.
Second half of 1990s
Then, we got our first job. Netscape disappeared. Social network of the time was MSN... the Microsoft-based social net. At that time, due to the busy schedule of an young working adult, I started to feel that social network was such a waste of time.
2000s
It is the age of Facebook. Having gone through the age of IRC, ICQ, MSN across 2 decades, I was reluctant to participate in Facebook. I reckon Facebook is just another form of social network that will go down-hill one day, when there is a newer application in future. I have been "diving" (instead of surfing) in the Facebook-sphere for the past few years.
Imagine what would Facebook be if:
- email was invented AFTER Facebook?
- telephone was invented AFTER Facebook?
However, recently, due to the lack of active Facebook exposure, I have missed out a few important events that can change my life for the pass few months. The most "stupid" one being... I didn't know that Sundown Ultra's finishing time had been changed from 16 hours to 18 hours until almost the last moment! This was, indeed, indirectly push me further in my training... but I had to endure unnecessary fear and pressure along the way.
I am now, seriously, thinking that Facebook (or whatever it will be replaced in future) could make-or-break certain decisions we made in life... big or small.
posted by YS at 8:12 PM
2 Comments:
Don't get too comfortable with FB though...in US the statistic showing that folks are losing interest in it...
At one stage I was getting quite hooked on it. It was addictive. But after a while, I find it a bit boring...
And I find it, more and more, it is pretty much a website that promotes narcissism....Hv never been too comfortable using it.
yeap Francis... agreed that it promotes narcissism...:P
I have been using wife's account to see what is happening LIMITED to circle of family members... until some race organizers updated and highlight news using FB quicker than their official webpage. I found this is wierd! So... let see if FB helps me to stay informed...:)
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