But then I discovered that on this very blog I can access archives from its earliest days, going back all the way to 2005. 2005! That Stephanie was only 26 years old! I was amazed to discover I'd posted 35 entries in 2005 and wondered what on earth I'd found of enough import to post so frequently. It seems that, these days, I am only tempted to post on here if I have the energy to write a literary essay and the appropriately themed subject matter that is vulnerable but not too vulnerable for public display.
So I eagerly click on 2005 to see what exciting topics consumed the Stephanie of 9 years ago. And I find entries about the new Harry Potter novel ("The Half-Blood Prince", to be precise), an update on my visit to the allergist after my anaphyactic scare, a picture of wedding dress to be worn in my brother's upcoming wedding, an annoyed entry about wanting to watch "The Thin Man" but having no access to the DVD player in my apartment. In short, they were mundane, somewhat entertaining entries about not much at all. It's extremely rewarding for me to get a glimpse of my daily life from my 20s, in the years when I was a journalist and before all of the life changes that came with a move to England. But they're not exactly earth shattering.
In 2006 I had 70 entries. 2007 started off well, with 47 and then they simply drop off. The big death knell to my personal blogging life (my professional blogging life carried on for years with "Across the Pond") was Facebook. Yes, in May 2007 I joined Facebook, which hadn't been open long to the general public. I remember being dubious about it but being talked into it by my dear friend Sus Montgomery, now Susanna March, back when she was the yin to my yang and we spent most of our free time together (in the days before husbands!)
It's hard to remember a life before Facebook. A friend and I were reminiscing the other day how the early years of Facebook seemed to be all about apps (did we call them apps? I feel like apps is a new-fangled word) where you could install a fish tank on your page, for instance, and your friends would all buy you fish for it. Then there was the Scrabulous craze. Then the Notes. Remember when we all wrote Facebook Notes, because the status update tool only let you use 100 characters?
I remember when our moms and grandmas started joining Facebook, and being relieved at how much easier it was to keep in touch with everyone with this new tool after moving abroad. And I remember when Twitter started, being appalled at the idea that each tweet had to be 40 characters or less (I'm still a little appalled, actually. I have a Twitter account but there is a conspicuous lack of tweets from me).
Nine years ago, when I first started this blog, I don't think the term social media even existed. Now it determines our lives. I, and many others, have benefited from tools like LeechBlock, which help to curtail time spent on social media and other time-wasting sites. Social media has become such a part of our lives that a Dutch college student recently faked a monthlong trip to Thailand in order to prove that what we put online can be absolutely contrived (reminiscent of one my very favorite episodes of Miranda, I must admit. Trouser press, anyone?)
I love social media. I am inspired by it, I connect with it, I use it very often for work and I keep in touch with interesting people and much loved family members and friends through it. But it's worthwhile to step back every so often and to try to remember a world without it. A world where a frustrated writer, say, a former features journalist who is very happy in her current job but who still misses the world of the printed word, can write about the mundane things of life on her very own, very old fashioned but very trusty blog.
