Internet Fame...

At the age of 12, I think I finally understood what the Internet was, or at least the basics of it anyway. I set up my first MSN account, accompanied with a very stupid "addy", aka msn email address and I spent time talking to people via the computer who were actually only minutes away from me. Whilst most of our conversations were almost unreadable, covered in those glittery letters and random emoticons that spelled out words, needless to say the whole thing was pretty pointless but I was amazed at the whole concept of it. This is where the addiction started...

After MSN, which I still occasionally use (thankfully, a new and improved email address is in working order) I moved on to Piczo. From what I remember, Piczo was a place where you could design your own website. It could have an about you page, often consisted of "Rate The Girls" and "Rate The Boys" pages, a guestbook and a page dedicated to pictures with friends, your favourite music with scroll lyrics and videos. Piczo was my first real taster to the internet, and I would spend hours editing codes and finding layouts and what not.

As the months passed, Piczo became quite boring and I moved on to Bebo next. I actually remember not being too fond of Bebo, but having it purely because everyone else did. It was a little bit pointless, like an earlier version of MySpace, but all my friends at school had it so I jumped on the bandwagon too. Alongside Bebo I tried my hand at Buzznet, Habbo Hotel and even Vampire Freaks. None of which were particular excellent, but I was quite happy to sit and waste my time on the internet.

Fast forward a couple of months later, and this was when I really noticed the whole internet fame trend start to appear. When I first became a member of MySpace, I lied about my age to be apart of the site. I spent hours and hours picking layouts and about me's. Speaking to people from my school, creating friends and sharing news and what not. Thanks to MySpace, I did actually make a lot of friends, and I am in no way disrespecting MySpace, I think it was a brilliant site.

Yet relating back to my original title, "Internet Fame", MySpace was where I saw this all take off. Depending on who you knew, or how pretty you were often depended on how many "friends" you created on this site. Sometimes it got to the point where cyber bulling and hate became a real issue, because people liked to cause drama. Top friends were seriously important, as were picture comments and friend counts. Looking back, it was pathetic really, but it just shows what society is turning into, a competition. A competition for everything.

There's Facebook now, and for once this site seems to genuinely be about connecting with those you haven't seen in a while. I find Facebook tedious, and the only reason I have it quite frankly is to be nosey. Yet i guess that's a human trait and instinct, to be nosey, to what to see what's going on in others lives. I'm not proud of it, but if people are going to flaunt their business over the internet, then I'm sure as hell gonna watch!

As I'm a part of Tumblr however, which I love (it may just be my favourite site) I see the re-occuring trend that I found when I was part of Myspace. The aim to be some sort of internet personality, to gain a "following" of "fans" from the internet and to become some "success" still lingers amongst many Tumblr members, but not all. It is thought that certain members are considered as "Tumblr Famous" as they have over 30,000 followers, and whilst I agree that is a large number I in no way believe that Tumblr fame exists.

I realise there are many sites that I haven't included in my list, such as Twitter, Wordpess, Blogspot etc etc, but I in fact don't think many types of fame over the internet really exist, as I think the whole concept is actually a little silly. I have no problem with those who make money off of the internet, with those who blog, vlog, facebook, tweet, tumble, anything. Just the idea that there are people who are superior to the rest of us strikes me as pathetic. Whilst they may be better at their talent I suppose, as an overall human being they are no better than you or I, and this thought constantly lingers in my mind.

Do you think the Internet has ruined our communication skills, or enhanced them? Has this obsession with internet fame driven some of us too far, to ever come back? And as the internet will continue to expand, does this mean good things or bad things are going to come our way?