Jessica Crutchfield's Techno Biography

For as long as I can remember, I was technology savvy. I can remember my first television, first video game console and first cell phone. But most profoundly, I can remember seeing my first America Online commercial in the early 90s. I begged my mom to get a desktop computer with Windows. Of course I didn't understand that dynamic of what Windows actually meant. I just new that there was something greater than DOS and that's all that mattered. To this day, I remember how long it took that little AOL man to sign into web through dial-up.

Because my brother is much older than me, I received his hand me down video game consoles. Although most girls aren't the stereotypical gamers, I was obsessed with video gaming. My first system was Super Ninentendo. It was box shaped, olive drabb gray and accented by purple "Select" and "Reset" buttons. The games fit into the console like USB cords fit into computers, and to begin the system, you had to slide the "Reset/On" switch. The first game I ever beat was Mario: Yoshi's Island. From there it was X-Men, Star Wars and any other compatible system. Once I got bored with that system, Ninento 64 and Sega Dreamcast and Gamecube soon followed. As I aged, I lost interest in the newer consoles, such as Playstation and XBox. I was jaded by the idea of cell phones and mp3 players(I got my first cell phone when I was 13, and have taken many casualties along the way). I still enjoy the original games I was introduced to, and I love that consoles such as the Wii and Gamecube exist. It allows me to relive my childhood.

As I stated before, I can remember the first time I saw an AOL commercial. America Online then looks as appealing as Verizon Fios does now - huge, fast, shiny and awesome. When it first got installed in my home, I remember how amazing and interesting the internet seemed. My AOL homepage was custom created for someone between the ages 11 to 16. I had serious parental restrictions and I remember getting angry that I couldn't visit MTV.com. I also remember my homepage having homework help sections, a Nickelodeon section and a new music section. I used all of the hottest search engines, such ass HotBot, Lycos, Hotmail, and Yahoo. In fact, I think I created email addresses on each of those sites for fun. Two to three years later, I remember seeing Google commercials. I would have never guess Google would be the top contender, nor did I think I'd own a G1 (the Google phone).

Its really interesting to look back at that, and remember the first time I received my IBM laptop. I also remember the first Youtube video I ever watched and the first college email I ever received. My freshman year, the college I attended had a wireless campus. Thus, we'd all sit around the lounge and instant message youtube videos to one another.

Although my freshman year was only 2 years ago, I think technologically I have advanced as a person. My first iPod was a shuffle and now I have the iPod Touch. I once had an IBM and now I have an HP Entertainment PC. Youtube has lost its flair and now everyone enjoys Hulu. In all, I think its fair to say that technology has been apart of my life as much I have been apart of its life. We've had great times and we've had bad times. But I definitely look forward to continuing to grow with it.