http://www.myspace.com/damofknowledge

Born: 8/24/2005
Died: 4/30/2009

Last status update at time of death: “Joel is hopped up goofballs” (unchanged for at least 6 months prior.)

The time has come to delete that MySpace profile, but not before rescuing all my precious (not-so-much) blog posts from it’s closed platform clutches. Everything you read prior to this post is archived from there, which means it’s best to ignore most everything said in it. It’s saved purely for historical record. A few months ago I finally deleted my LiveJournal too. It had been dormant since, well, since whenever I joined MySpace. Part of me wishes I still had those posts, but it is probably best that little emo piece of the blogosphere be lost forever to the ages.

And so the cycle continues…

There was Facebook before these, but I got rid of it back in ’05. <sarcasm>Thankfully</sarcasm> they kept my profile safe and warm and hidden for me to return to when everyone grew tired of MySpace. Before that, Friendster. And it all started for me back in 1999.

After I got my first computer to start undergrad with. I quickly became interested in learning how to make my own web page. Geocities, you made it all possible. Before there were the terms “Blog” or “Social Networking” that first site filled all those roles. It was my portfolio, my status update, and it became a place for all my friends to gather. The final version of that four year ever-changing site still lives on somewhere around here today.

Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Tumblr, that profile on Match.com nobody knows about (j/k), etc., they are all really good at letting us create an online profile, that when boiled down to a <ul> of likes and dislikes, makes us seem a little more interesting than we feel. Strange though how technology gave so many of us such a strong desire to share with the world thoughts that were once confined to guarded journals and diaries. To paraphrase Ian Malcolm we “were so preoccupied with whether or not [we] could, [we] didn’t stop to think if [we] should.” But that’s all fine, don’t read this obituary like a criticism of these services.

I’m fascinated by personal timelines. No matter how mundane or banal, I want at least my personal history documented in some way. My biggest gripe with all of these sites is just that all the information I post ends up outside of my control. I’m not some paranoid privacy advocate or anything. I know that what you put online has a tendency to stay online no matter what, but at least here it’s completely at my discretion. So that’s why I’m going back to my roots in a way, just like I started on Geocities, albeit with 10 years more experience under my belt.

A look back at some notable moments in my ‘Space history:

• Mere weeks after signing up and uploading this sweet picture of myself, I was featured in the “Cool New People” on the front page. Several ladies caught on to my wit and awesomeness.
• ThesePeople launched and swept the country, using MySpace in the same way indie bands used it to promote and interact. Our videos were featured numerous times, gaining thousands of views and comments claiming it was “TEH SUXXORZ.”
• Google me all you want, but a year and a half ago you wouldn’t have found my email address anywhere online. My MySpace profile, if you could find it, was the only way to message me; and after one random night out in Chicago, someone pretty much awesome did just that.
• One of my best friends from Elementary School also contacted me on there. That was truly cool, really.

So rest in peace MySpace, you won’t be missed, but I’m not going to lie, I do feel a tinge of regret for all the empty “Top Friends” spots I’m gong to leave on friend’s also-long-dormant profiles.