Reminiscing - Were there days before Internet?

 While many college attendees haven't had the so-called 'privilege' of growing up in a time without Internet access, I feel lucky to remember the dark ages .  Once upon a time, students went to libraries to complete research, televisions were connected with rabbit ear antennae, and if we wanted to find out the latest news, we actually had to turn on that TV, sometimes with our own two hands! I do remember those days, and I certainly can appreciate the time before Internet, though I am infinitely more grateful to have access to technology now. The skills I've learned and knowledge I've acquired, not only through standard education methods, but also through countless hours of online research, have helped shaped both my personal life and professional career.

Traditionally, pre-wifi, when students wanted to complete research for a paper or study for a test, myself included, we had to use the dreaded library. If you can imagine the age bracket between getting your first teeth and obtaining your driver's license, you can probably recall with a minimal shudder exactly how taxing that was. Mom and dad may have worked full time, or you may be a latch key kid, which was my circumstance, growing up with a single mother. No computer, no cell phone - gasp - and certainly, no internet. What's an enterprising child to do? Walking was always an option, but even before the term was coined, I've always had a helicopter mom. That's another story for another day, however for those unfamiliar with the term, the basic concept is, she hovers constantly. Needless to say, with constant supervision from neighbors and imposed upon older siblings of friends and family, I was often alone, but never unsupervised.

 I can remember our first desktop, which my babysitter, even at the age of 13, often helped me navigate while balancing several textbooks against the relic monitor. It came complete with pre-historic dial up access and multiple AOL accounts; one of which I still maintain to this day. Fast forward several decades (we won't specific exactly how many), and I'm sitting in a different rural town, and while on vacation, still in a cozy home my mother calls her own. The difference? Two dozen cheap ballpoint pens, a bottle of white out, two backpacks full of books that weighed more than my former self, more library hours than I can count years of my life, approximately forty less pounds of computer equipment, two dozen less wires, and one less phone line - and short one babysitter, of course. As far as I know, my mother is, after all, traditionally italian.

You may be asking yourself, how exactly has painting this picture helped me convey how my current wi-fi enabled laptop; which is connected to my mobile phone hotspot, which is also powering the Kindle on which I used to locate this opportunity, assisted me in sharing the story of my technological development with you. In it's simplest form, I can break it down by saying had this been a paper pre-Internet, it would be at least four times the length, due to both double-spacing ruler paper and my large, loopy handwriting which I thankfully rarely use anymore. In it's more complex form, I've spent more than a decade in a career which had the Internet not existed, I absolutely would not have the chance to be burnt out on everything social media related, Facebook frenzied, and pop culture centric. You see, I've spent the last years of my professional existence blogging and tweeting with the best of them for some international brands. Those years of hard-earned computer skills, and creating a manual to teach my mother how to turn on the monitor and log on to that 'AOL thing' have paid off immensely. While I myself did not create the Internet (Al Gore I am not), I helped shape it to earn millions upon millions of impressions worldwide. I've created brands, I've launched products, and I've kept up with the Joneses of Facebook, Vine, and the like.

My experiences in social media have been a rollercoaster ride. While I enjoy printing (wirelessly, of course) - created one of the fIrst Facebook brand accounts to reach over 500,00 fans and first to launch on Twitter profiles, the meaning behind these achievements isn't impacting the world in a positive way. Not to say that social media platforms don't have their purpose, and my relatives would be lost without my tech support at times, but it's not enough. I want to take all the technology and media tools I've learned, and impact the world. I want to use these advanced, instantaneous communication tools to build wells in third world countries; to save pets in need of rescue; to help children learn life skills that will help them well beyond Calculus 101.

There's a problem with ambition, though. It can only take you so far. I have the tools to get my name out there, thank you marketing degree, but not the knowledge to make the impact I want. I want to use the Internet to spread the word about volunteerism and community service. I want to make people smile, and make those people make other people smile, but I need help. I need more knowledge, and I need support, in many forms. What better way to showcase how technology has helped me develop than to use it to directly impact the world?