© Mark Ollig
In 2008 my oldest son was preparing for a trip to Florence, Italy, and I asked him,
“What would be a good way to stay in contact with you?”
“Get a Facebook account and request to add me as a ‘friend’,” he replied.
“What about using MySpace?” I suggested.
“No, you want to get on Facebook,” he confidently told me.
So, in 2008, I became another profile face on Facebook.
Navigating around Facebook reminded me of the late 1980s when I was a member of the dial-up commercial computer bulletin board service (BBS) called “Prodigy.”
During the 1980s and through much of the ‘90s, popular nationwide dial-up computer bulletin board services included Prodigy, America Online, and CompuServe.
Prodigy’s BBS used a colorful graphical user interface requiring the installation of their client software (from floppy disks) onto our computers.
Its services offered participation in exchanging thoughts and opinions in user forums on various subjects and included regularly updated news, weather, sports, and online shopping.
Prodigy sent me a complimentary porcelain coffee mug shaped like a computer terminal screen and keyboard, which I thought looked pretty cool.
Prodigy began in 1984 (has it been 38 years?), and by 1990, it had grown to over 465,000 subscribers, making it the second-largest online service behind CompuServe.
I was surprised to learn CompuServe was started in 1969 by Jeffrey Wilkins in Columbus, OH, to computerize his father-in-law’s insurance company.
In 1979, CompuServe launched what many consider the first consumer online dial-up information service.
In addition to Prodigy, I also belonged to the America Online (AOL) dial-up site, which began in 1985.
Prodigy provided a gateway, a door, for us to access the internet. As a result, I regularly used this social media site for internet access during the early '90s.
CompuServe and other online services also provided a gateway to the internet.
In 1994, Prodigy was one of the first dial-up services offering subscribers access to the World Wide Web (web) over the internet using its web browser version.
As technology improved during the 1990s, many of us found it unnecessary to use a dial tone telephone line and computer modem for accessing online services like Prodigy or CompuServe to get on the internet and access the web.
We installed software web browsers called NCSA Mosaic, Internet Explorer, and Netscape Navigator on our computers to surf the web using competitive Internet Service Providers.
We moved from dial-up and began using faster speed “always-on” internet connections like the local telephone company's DSL (Digital Subscriber Line).
By 1995, cable company networks began offering the public a direct internet connection using a cable modem.
Jumping ahead to 2008, I used Facebook to regularly update my status, post photos, and share and catch up on the latest news and goings-on with others.
I also communicated with my son in Italy and still have a Facebook “thumbs up” coffee mug.
In early 2009, I talked over the phone about Facebook with former Herald Journal & Enterprise Dispatch editor Lynda Jensen, whom I spoke with regularly while writing my columns.
Our conversations usually ended up exchanging humorous commentaries and much laughter.
“You know Lynda, it would be good if you got an account on Facebook, it would be fun,” I said.
She hesitated and then began asking me many questions about it as a good journalist does.
Lynda then told me she would think about it.
Shortly afterward, she got her account, and we became “Facebook Friends,” extending our playful back-and-forth conversational bantering into the online world.
We posted photos and links to interesting stories and shared humorous commentaries on Facebook for a little over a year.
Lynda said that she found her best friend from college, her pastor, a former co-worker, and other people she knew because of Facebook.
She also wrote a couple of columns about her adventures using Facebook.
Lynda’s March 2, 2009 column is titled: “Dragged into the 21st Century” and can be read at https://bit.ly/3FMs4AB.
The following week, she wrote: “Hacking my way through the digital jungle on Facebook,” which you will find at https://bit.ly/3yKDC5X.
Lynda passed away in 2010, and I miss her very much.
So, here we are in 2022, and the global online community keeps growing.
Once called “virtual digital communities,” online social media sites are venues where we network with others. But, of course, one cannot be sure whether we always communicate with another human or sometimes a software bot agent.
I assume others, along with me, find nostalgia in remembering the early days of using a telephone line and modem for dialing into a computer bulletin board service and engaging in learning and camaraderie.
Today, people regularly use online social media for work, education, shopping, newsgathering, and, on occasion, playful bantering with friends and family.
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| I took this photo of the two coffee mugs I referenced in the article |