So there I was , wolfing down a random strawberry flavoured coffee concoction at one of the many Starbucks Coffee Emporiums in town when myself and a couple of my mates started discussing when we first jumped on the interweb. For me, it was back in 1996 when I commenced my Bachelor Of Arts degree at La Trobe Uni. Back then, Hotmail wasn’t owned by Microsoft, Geocities wasn’t a part of the Yahoo! universe and the whole Facebook/Myspace/Bebo social network sensation was unheard of.
Back then social networking was restricted to Internet Relay Chat and if you were one of the cool kids, you had an ICQ account (and this was before AOL jumped in and turned ICQ into a bloated pile of junk). MSN messenger was unheard of.
It’s funny how the interweb seems to be all about MSN, Facebook and Myspace these days (in terms of most popular social networking tools) My mates are hooked on MSN and Myspace. I suppose that is the norm for a couple of blokes in their early twenties, one of whom is visiting Australia for the first time. If it weren’t for the interweb (namely Myspace) I probably would’ve never met my Bulgarian friend. The interweb may be making the world a smaller place but if I had to choose between drinking a coffee in person with mates and drinking a coffee on cam while chatting to mates, I can tell you here and now, I’d rather be at Starbucks.