Staying in touch!

Growing up in the 1980's was quite simple but I wouldn't say convenient. We didn't have cell phones or Myspace, all we had was an analog phone and at some point my dad purchased an answering machine. Calling up friends was a gamble: either you got a busy signal or it would be your friend's mom who would then have to shout your friend's name 5 times before you could talk. In some instances it would be your friend's sister who was already on the phone (using call waiting) and would lie to you saying that your friend wasn't home so she could go back to talking about boys with her friends. The best part is you would go through all of this just to say... hey wanna go down the block and play manhunt?

Beepers
The 90's soon rolled around with emerging popularity of the beeper. No more busy signals or friends not home... we have now gone wireless (if you were able to convince your parents that you were not selling drugs and could afford such a luxury device). Beepers were customizable and essential if you wanted to look cool or important. Before emoticons we used numeric codes like 143 (I love you) or 07734 (hello). But you always had to have quarters to call someone back. I imagine this was a profitable time for the pay phone companies. The best part of having a beeper was that you were reachable 24/7 and the worst part about having a beeper was that you were reachable 24/7!

AOL
In the mid 90's I set up my first AOL account which gave me access to the internet via dial-up. It took awhile to connect but once you got online your entire night would become a blur of Instant Messaging and web surfing. Social networking has begun as you would update your AOL profile and search other peoples profiles on Angelfire or Geocities. Surprisingly I didn't really get into the chat room community too much as I spent most of my time skateboarding or going to parties at this point. I think my age group just missed this by about a year or two.

Cell Phones
1999 was the year I purchased my first cell phone but still kept my beeper. Friends would page me and I would call them back on the cell phone (soon enough I realized that this was pointless and cancelled the beeper). Snake became my favorite game and finding out which bars my friends were at each night became a cinch. Say goodbye to remembering phone numbers at this point and say hello 2-year contracts that emphasize 9:01pm talk time!

Friendster
Around 2003 I setup my Friendster account for one reason only... a girl! My friends convinced me to setup a profile so that a girl I liked could check me out. It worked (sort of) she liked my profile and pics and we hung out a few times. Unfortunately she was into some stuff that I wasn't so... that was that but the Friendster scene swallowed me whole! Each day new friend requests arrived and we are all introduced to the "testimonial" (for better or for worse). People I knew from all stages of my life were surfacing... this Friendster thing is fun and for some reason girls from the Philippines start trying to date me! Friendster eventually became a time capsule capturing my life in my mid-twenties.

Myspace
In 2006 most of my friends had been using Myspace instead of Friendster so I setup an account. Wow... I could upload more pics than Friendster and with my knowledge of html and CSS I could design my profile page! Unfortunately I had to go find all of my Friendster friends and add them again... and now I have to check 2 profiles along with my email accounts. Myspace eventually becomes my main profile and I stopped checking Friendster.

LinkedIn
2008 marks a social transition time in my life as I become more focused on work than going out to bars... so I setup a LinkedIn account. LinkedIn primarily focuses on networking you with your coworkers or people you have done business with professionally. Essentially it is your resume with testimonials or a bit like Friendster mixed with Monster. Quite interesting as you can now see your contacts work history but overall pretty boring. I update this every few weeks.

Twitter
As an IT professional I constantly experiment with web applications and in mid 2008 I came across a blog about Twitter. Twitter allows you to frequently post updates... kind of like Instant Messaging status messages. People can then follow your updates or "Tweets". The cool part is you can send these updates via text message from your phone. Most people use the iPhone app but they also have all types of widgets available for Myspace, Facebook, blogs, iGoogle, etc. Twitter was fun for a few months but eventually I stopped updating/checking it as frequently.

Blogger
I currently have 3 websites online... first is my Rixpixels portfolio site, second is my Rixmix archive site and the third is my RickFixMyMac site. Each site is pretty static lacking updates so as a 2009 New Year's resolution I wanted to start a blog that tied all 3 websites together... so I started RixBlog. RixBlog allows me to quickly post topics of interest (Design, Technology, Music & Lifestyle) for everyone to see. Ultimately I hope it captures my life from 2009+ and will be a reference to revisit in the future.

Facebook
Now we are in mid February 2009 and I finally setup my Facebook account. For the third time now I will have to go out and seek out my friends. Facebook looks pretty fun as it ties together Twitter and Myspace and does allow you to update via text message. They even have a Blackberry application... yay! This round of social networking is one that will be a bit more mature for me as I am almost 30... plus my family members are on it (or will be on it eventually). I will miss the profile customization part as I am a designer at heart, but who knows if they will bring back html/css customization anytime soon.

What's Next?
So after my trip down memory lane I can only wonder what the next 5 years will bring. Whatever it will be I would like to see the following features:
• Completely modular interface (like iGoogle)

• Ability to import contacts & media from all previous social networking sites
• One post updates all ability
• Access options (Family, Friends, Colleagues & the public see appropriate content)
• Complete mobile access (Phone, Blackberry, iPhone, etc)
• Customization with limitation (spam control)
• Existing email account(s) integration
• Adverting with limitation (nothing overwhelming)

Until then I will have to remember my voicemail pin as well as my logins for Friendster, Myspace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Blogger, and of course my multiple email accounts. But it's ok since all of these are currently free!