Before writing came along, we only spoke. Then literacy came and it changed everything. - Identities shifted - Institutions shifted - Education shifted Now, during my lifetime, there's a new game in town, after literacy. Ulmer calls it electracy. We're in a great technological transition, from literacy to something else. And just like last time, this new mode of conveying information is changing everything. ### How do I relate to the internet? --- As of 2025 I have a business website, a number of social media accounts, and this digital garden where I am making [[garden ethos]]. I am also intrigued by Derek Sivers’ idea that his personal website is an Autobiography. I used to think social media was about posturing and marketing, but neither of those frames were very fun, so now I’m exploring, What if social media platforms are places to play various games? [oh twitter is a video game](https://x.com/elocowan/status/1914364276606697581?s=61) ### A history of how I have related to the internet: --- Overall, I haven’t been an extremely online person. I didn’t grow up online. I’m not a digital native. I grew up playing video games in the early 90s. Mario on NES. Sonic on Sega. Myst on PC. Then Tony Hawk Pro Skater in the early 2000s, but that’s it. I never played any networked games. I signed up for a hotmail account in the mid nineties, age 11, jargonator at hotmail dot com. I also set up AOL instant messenger cause a lot of my peers were doing it, but we didn’t use it as a friend group. Most of my internet usage during my adolescence was private. I looked at porn, read erotic stories online. I wasn’t part of any online communities or message boards. In high school I downloaded music via napster. In college I got an oberlin.edu email account. Signed up for gmail my senior year in 2007, early enough to get my firstname.lastname at gmail dot com. Facebook started when I was in college. I think I got it in 2005, maybe? I remember you still needed an edu email address to get onto facebook when it first came on the scene. 2006 was the year when facebook went from everyone having a wall to everyone having a news feed. I vaguely remember that, mostly cause I thought the wall was cool. U just listed the music U liked and the movies U liked, etc. I didn't really understand the appeal of the feed. My senior project was called the Oberlin Bachelor Machine, and it was (sort of) about the internet. From August 2008-October 2008, I posted on [ethanbrand.wordpress.com](https://ethanbrand.wordpress.com) After that I got really focused on IRL stuff. - Contact Improvisation - Feldenkrais - Dance Performance - Childcare My next big internet milestone was Tiago Forte, BASB via Daniel Thorson who heard about it from Tasshin. In 2020, right at the beginning of COVID lockdown, I thought I should “grow up” and get a job coding, to make adult money, so I did a coding bootcamp, but I hated it. This was seeing the internet as a way to make money.