You've Got Mail
Right now I am watching "You've Got Mail," one of my favorite movies of all time.
As I'm watching, I'm shocked by the remembrance of good 'ole dial up America Online 4.0.
Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks are taking me back to my very first experiences with AOL. It was 1997, I was 10 years old, and my Dad got AOL on our home computer. His screen name, LWhit5455, was one that he and I shared (LWhit, standing for my dad's first initial and last name, and 5455 being code for my name, Jill - look on your cell phone!) We shared this screen name for a year, until he decided that he needed the screen name as his own for business purposes. I'm also sure he was tired of the e-mails I was receiving from the few friends I had online.
I was a very brave 10 year old. I remember the VERY first time I signed online, I heard the screeching of the dial up and it scared me. With my over active imagination, I thought that by "signing online" people would automatically be able to see me (ironically, much like today's chatroulette). Of course, back then we didn't have web cams, and signing onto AOL mearly lead you to the generic "Welcome page," but at 10 years old, I didn't know this. I had NO IDEA what to expect. "YOU'VE GOT MAIL," the computer shouted at me. I grew accustomed to email VERY quickly and thereafter ventured straight into AOL chat rooms.
I'll admit. My parents had NO CLUE I was learning the ropes of internet chat rooms the same time that I was learning long hand division. Before AIM became a fad, I was in AOL chat rooms learning the meaning of A/S/L or even better "ASL check" - as if you really have to check your age, sex and location.
I was a shy kid. I went INTO the chat rooms, but rarely had the courage to actually say anything. I was smart. I never gave out my location or full name. The Internet was fascinating to me and I wanted to learn EVERYTHING about it. I usually entered chat rooms on a quest looking for kids my own age. This is hysterical to me now, but my favorite chat room was "Gymnastics chat". During the 1996 Olympics, The Magnificent 7 had dominated women's gymnastics. I became star-struck by USA champion, Dominique Moceanu, and I when I learned she trained at a Houston gymnasium down the street from my house, I started gymnastics. My athletic training lasted one whopping year, and I quickly realized I was not meant to go to the Olympics (and that I'm just NOT an athletic person, in general).
I remember going into this sporty chat room and chatting with other Mag 7 fangirls, trading gymnast photos and audio files of interviews and Olympic routines. Back in those days, it would take HOURS for pictures to upload. It would take literally half the day for an audio or video file to be transferred. Not too long after I grew accustomed to the culture of AOL chat rooms, my dad made me get my own screen name, and with this new screen name came parental controls that lasted until I was 18. Needless to say, I fell out of the chat room world as quickly as I fell in.
My first screen name was JWDramaGrl. JW, standing for my initials, "drama" referring to my love for the theatre (I was a theatre kid. I practically grew up on stage in Houston Community theaters) and at 10 years old, it was OBVIOUSLY so much cooler to spell "girl" without the i. Yessss. I kept this as my active e-mail until I was 21. (EMBARASSING, I know). Finally, two years ago I realized that employers and professors might get the wrong idea if they received mail from JWDramaGrl.
This movie makes me nostalgic. I miss signing into the AOL software. This was my only form of Internet for years, until Internet Explorer became the norm. Now there's Firefox, Safari, and who knows how many other kinds of internet operating systems. AOL was a different kind of online culture. I can't explain it. Only hard-core early AOL adopters know what I'm talking about. I remember personalizing my AOL homepage, changing my background, agonizing over the wordage of my user profile, and customizing my buddy icon and fonts used for AIM. I remember replacing the standard AOL "Welcome" audio blip to Joey from Friends saying "Heeeey. How You Doin?" "You've got Mail" was replaced with Lisa Kudrow squealing, "Ooh Ooh! You're popular! You've got mail," and my "Goodbye" was replaced by Jamie Lee Curtis hollering, "Seeya later!"
Now that I think about it, AOL was my first Internet "have-it-your-way" user-customization experience. That's pretty cool.
This is my ode to AOL; my introduction to the Internet.
I'm a loyal AOL fan, and I still use AOL.com as my personal e-mail provider today. Were you ever an AOL user? What was YOUR first internet screen name?
I love reflecting on how the internet alone has transformed since 1997. Thanks Tom and Kate, for the stroll down technological memory lane.
That's "the spill",
Jill
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About Me
- Jill, not Jillian.
- Graduate student. Studying public communication and technology with an emphasis in public relations. Publicist for Disney. New media guru.
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