Menu:

"On Getting a Girlfriend"

July 18, 2002

Today, I was sitting at work taking a mental trip in the way-back machine, when I decided to see if the Gator Clan website was still around. It is, and for that I am somewhat pleased. It bothers me a little, because I recall the sort of person I was then, and I am sometimes surprised and disgusted by my behavior. Reading this, I understand how Dave feels about his old disaster area/daily eatings posts and his hesistance to repost them now.

One thing I mentioned back then, and had forgotten until now, was the on-line journal, "My Diary On Getting a Girlfriend" (now defunct). From the perspective of 2002, it is not that remarkable. Today, it would be just another weblog, without even a content-management system powering it! However, when it started in 1996, the web was new, and according to one weblog historian, "MDOGAG" was one of the first weblogs. This puts the author squarely in the realm of "web pioneer."

I started reading MDOGAG back in 1997, my freshman year of college. It seems most of the guys I knew were desperately seeking female companionship (in between bouts of Quake and Ultimate Frisbee). I'm including myself in that group. Stumbling upon this brutally honest, heartfelt weblog put a new perspective on things. It gave the guys who read it a foundation for talking about our own girl problems. Several guys at UF started their own copycat sites which, at the time, seemed too personal and revealing, but expected of weblogs today. If anyone has a link to an archive of that old journal, please share the link below.

Back in the "Early Days" of the Internet, people foresaw a time when personal, one-on-one communication with large numbers of strangers would become not only possible, but the norm. In the years since, we've seen massive dot-com failures, new Internet regulations, and ever-increasing commercialization and centralization. These trends have bled and faded that earlier promise, but looking back at "My Diary On Getting a Girlfriend" and the later weblog community that grew-up after it, I can see that the Internet is still pregnant with the possibility of new forms of human contact and the social changes they engender. When something one once considered revolutionary is now considered commonplace, a true revolution in thinking has occurred.

By the way, Dave, do you remember the password to the Gator Clan hotmail account? I bet we've got some strange things in there by now.