My experience with technology has a lot to do with my love for storytelling. My first encounter with technology was actually my first encounter with storytelling. I don’t remember exactly when I first encountered technology or when I first initially used it either. For all I can remember, I was sitting in front of the television ever since I could open my eyes. The big black boxy TV was where I spent nearly half of my childhood. I remember watching Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, The Lion King, The Little Mermaid, and nearly all of the Barbie movies as well as countless PBS Kids shows like Zoboomafoo, The Big Comfy Couch, Zoom, and Between the Lions. This was my first exposure to the art of storytelling. Movies and television played a big role in my upbringing because I never had anyone to play with. All my siblings were older than me. My oldest brother is sixteen years older than me, the second oldest is eleven years older, and my sister is five years older than me. My sister would play occasionally, but most of the time my siblings were just babysitting me. I never really had any play time with them and spent most of my time being entertained by the TV. With such an eventful childhood, you can imagine how much I grew to love movies and TV shows. My imagination and creativity came from whatever I saw on TV. Little did I know, that this would be my first exposure to the art of storytelling and the start of my journey with technology.
As I grew up, I grew more and more in love with the art of storytelling, and with the love of storytelling came more encounters with technology. I loved movies, I loved plays, I loved reading and writing, and I loved acting. Once I was able to read, my love for storytelling evolved to another level. Once I finished one book, I’d go back for another. I was in and out of the school library nearly twice a day. I was reading books in class, during class, before class, and after class. Reading was my new favorite thing to do. Reading was my life. Reading books was my second exposure to the art of storytelling.
The first time I used a computer was in elementary school. I loved the computer lab because all we’d do was play games and do typing practices. Because of my love for reading, I developed a love for writing. I enjoyed writing in my notebook, but there was something special about writing on a computer, it seemed more official, and closer to the books. With the internet and computers, I found my way to a new form of storytelling, manga and anime. I would read manga on my home computer and watch anime with my brother and sisters. There was just something different about Japanese storytelling. It was enthralling. With the portability and internet accessibility of the laptop, I found that I didn’t watch movies or television shows as much anymore. The laptop or computer was where I spent a lot of my time.
Eventually I got my own Nook at the age of twelve. It is a reading tablet that also has internet access. My Nook was way more portable than the laptop I used. The Nook had the Google play store and had a bunch of apps I could download and use. It also allowed me to borrow books from my local library, through an app called “Overdrive”. You can bet I was on my Nook twenty-four hours a day. I took it everywhere with me. I didn’t have to lug around thick books with me anymore. All I needed was my Nook, which often had nearly ten books pre-downloaded and ready for me to read at any time. Whenever I got bored, or my eyes were tired from reading too much, I’d just switch over to playing games to take a break. I could also type on my Nook whenever I wished. It was especially useful for when I suddenly got a story idea and needed to type it down before I forgot. The Nook was a definitely a game changer for me, but then I got a phone.
I cried when I got my first smartphone when I was fourteen years old. I was in love and so excited. I spent the whole day figuring it out, downloading apps, setting my background, choosing my theme, and asking for phone numbers. My Nook was portable but bulky. My smartphone was just right. It fit in my pocket and was smaller, but so much more accessible, and it had internet access whenever wanted it. I loved my phone and was definitely addicted. I enjoyed the apps I had on there and loved using it. I remember when I first downloaded Facebook onto my phone and didn’t have to look on the laptop or website anymore. It took some getting used to, but it was definitely exciting. I would scroll forever and ever.
I feel like I grew up with social media, or at least the major ones. First it was Myspace, then Facebook, then Instagram, then Twitter, then Vines, then Snap Chat, and now TikToks. I feel like as we advance with technology, our methods of storytelling evolve as well. It first began with oral stories, then written stories, then pictures, then videos, and now there’s live stream, and even interactive stories. By interactive stories, I mean video games. I feel like as technology grows, so does our method of storytelling. I’ve learned that my love for storytelling was heavily impacted by my experiences with technology, so in the future as I create my own stories to tell, I now know that my stories will have to evolve with whatever new technology the future brings.
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