Quiver & Quill

It wasn’t so long ago that people who dated online, or socialized over instant messenger, were called socially inept. Around late 1999, Friendster and instant messenger found a high school and college presence. However, meeting someone on Friendster was stigmatized, even ‘Googling’ was considered somewhat stalkerish.

Within 3 years, everything changed. Shortly after I graduated college in 2003, literally 2/3 of students at my alma mater were active on Facebook. It quickly became so intertwined into the college social scene that the administration adopted it as a spying tool.

In early 2004, having an online identity wasn’t just necessary for Generation X: it became cool. Club promoters, unapproachable women, guys on my old high school’s football team, teen girls at the mall were all online. The Life Online project asks how this happened.

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