I’m a certified net junkie. I enjoy spending time on the net: from emailing to researching to playing or just plain googling. I like hanging around in this virtual world. I even miss it, and in the past few years, I couldn’t pry myself away from it. First thing I do in the morning is go online. The last thing I do before going to bed is go offline. No kidding.
I’ve never really devoted too much analysis about my own internet time though. Concepts and questions about time in the digital age is a fascinating subject for me, but consciously reflecting on my own net-time experience is something I’ve just began to practice.
Chilling out in the chat room
My first acquaintance with the web was around 1994. It was also about the time when I got more comfortable using the computer. Actually, I used the Bulleting Board System more than the net.
I could only use the internet sparingly and always in the office. I didn’t consider it then as a timeless or a global medium. It didn’t impact my personal life so greatly. Not yet.
In 1997 when I could afford my own computer and pre-paid internet cards became the rage in the Philippines, I started getting hooked and became more familiar with the concept of internet. I discovered chat rooms and that aroused my curiosity. I started using the chat rooms of the Philippine Inquirer and talked with other like-minded youths – the ‘tibaks’(activists) and artists. The chat room became a sort of sit-in session, but not just limited to politics. We talked about everything at anything. It felt good to be able to connect to my fellow youth through this medium. I was always bursting with curiosity: who would I meet this time, who’d be online, what would I discover about the other users?
I personally found the concept of user names quite exciting. Thinking of cool or unique names was a challenge. It was reflection of ones personality and for me that was very important. Chatting for me then was a mix of real conversation plus made-up conversations that reflected one’s character. For example: I was ‘Boss Miawok’, a popular Filipino comic strip figure; a mafia-type Mayor of Cats. I acted like the boss and other users would actually pay their respects to me by bowing, tipping their hats off, and the like. Before I knew it, I had my own minions; and even my own trademark dessert became legendary: ‘Boss Miawok gives you choco-sardine mousse with crunchy cockroach bits sprinkles.’
This was the net for me: a place to be silly and passionate at the same time; where people are judged based on how good they make you laugh or how insightful their words are. We didn’t need to know one another in the real word to agree or disagree with the other. And yeah, getting to rename yourself was cool!
Retelling stories
The greatest impact of the net came to me in the form of stories. I stumbled into the world of MUD’s (multi-user dungeons) and discovered storytelling ala-internet. Wikipedia defines MUD as:
“a multi-player computer game that combines elements of role-playing games, hack and slash style computer games and social instant messaging chat rooms. …the game is usually text driven, where players read descriptions of rooms, objects, events, other characters, and computer-controlled creatures or non-player characters (NPCs) in a virtual world. Players usually interact with each other and the surroundings by typing commands that resemble a natural language, usually English.”
I became a regular player of the Two Towers MUD (or the Lord of the Rings). At first I was frustrated, because I didn’t know yet commands of the program had to reorient myself from being dependent on graphics back to being comfortable with pure text.
Later, when I became accustomed to this new surrounding, I started “going there” more often. And from being a mere player, I could truly say that I became a real resident/citizen of that world. If you would ask me then how my day was, I’d tell you two versions: how my day was spent in the real world and what I did in the MUD. There was a lot to do: quests, developing your skills and capacities, earning gold, updating your weapons and magic scrolls, helping out friends, attending carnivals and gatherings, fighting battles, settling guild matters, participating in elections, etc. etc. etc.!
It became my alternate world. I relished every minute spent on the MUD; wouldn’t sleep just to be able to mud. Seated on a computer chair, electric fan whirling madly, the room still felt like an oven and yet I went on playing. I would drink iced lemonade or cola, puff my cigarette, stretch my arms and legs and massage my wrists. I’d take a quick pause to get food (and go to the toilet) then go back again. It was a time when day or night didn’t matter. Of course, it helped that I was just working part-time then so I had more control of my time.
Boyfriends and the net
You know how you retain memories from past relationships? There’s always a key picture, a moment in time that freezes and is representative of the whole relationship. With my past 2 boyfriends these images were: a kiss basked with moonlight on a warm March evening, and; watching Shawshank Redemption through my tears and BF2 looking lovingly at me.
With my then husband-to-be the key image was: words of affection appearing against the black screen of the Two Towers MUD game. Yep, that’s how I remember it: me seated behind the monitor at dawn, all alone with the mosquitoes and the ever-present heat, my heart beating wildly as I read those words (that I longed to hear…literally, too) on the monitor. Further conversations with my husband-to-be were recorded and I re-live them every time I read the print-outs or the saved file. At this point in my life, my chat and MUD sessions with him became the center of my time. My time on the net became more important than anything else.
Beyond myself, beyond the web
It’s not just the language or the quality of life in the Netherlands that’s totally different from the Philippines, but the digital landscape as well. Since I moved here almost 5 years ago, it has become easier to transform into an über-net junkie. Having internet access the whole day was certainly new for me, but I got used to it very quickly. I maintain my own domain and blog and actively read other blogs and participate in several forums. I’ve become so used to this way of life that I now get easily frustrated when I’m internetting in the Philippines, or when video conferencing with my family because our conversations are lagged due to the slow internet connection.
However, these frustrations are my reality check. It reminds me of the fact that 80% of the world is still offline; not everyone has a PC for individual use; and electricity and telephone lines are still on the wish-list of countless people in most parts of the world (including the Philippines).
It inspires me to look at interactivity beyond the web and beyond my individual experience. How can interactivity online be extended beyond the computer screen? How can it really spark interaction in communities? How can it be transformed as a testament to ones culture? These are just some questions that I believe are important to answer as individuals, and also as a migrant community.
What kinds of interactive projects can the Filipino migrant community undertake that can bolster solidarity, strengthen our sense of self and promote our interests? More on this in my next post. ;-p
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