MEDIUM ANALYSIS: Working Thesis

What compels people to not only visit hotornot.com but also post their own picture on the site?

Hot or Not

I've been trying to pick a medium I know quite a bit about but I can't seem to think of one that's interesting so I'll do the opposite. I decided to pick a medium I know little about. Hot or not .com or rate my professor.com. I want to know who started them, why they start them and why they're successful. The answer to my last inquiry might be obvious but I want to do some more digging.

When was I first introduced to technology? Well, first I should pose the question: when did technology actually begin? In the loose sense technology started with the invention of the wheel or perhaps the harnessing of electricity. In the strict sense technology began somewhere around 1989 with the invention of the microchip. This little chip would help define me.

In 1989 I was six. My toy arsenal consisted of GI Joe and Micro Machines. None of which contained a microchip. In 1989 I was content. Content until the microchip spurred the creation of Nintendo’s little plastic box of doom.

I had to wait until 1994 to get my own system and it technically wasn’t mine. It wasn’t mine for two reasons. First, it was used. That means it belong to someone else. That some else abused it to the point that it didn’t work very well. We spent many hours performing common tricks to try and get it to work. We blew into the games, pushed down on them prematurely while loading so that the game would scrape into place. We performed many other common tricks that didn’t exclude throwing it across the room.

The second reason the Nintendo wasn’t mine has to do with the word “we”. That’s right, I had to share with my older brothers. They would gladly take advantage of their older brother status and pummel me until I could no longer hold the controller. Thankfully it broke before I ended up in a body cast. My parents vowed to never let another devil box into their house again.

I blame Nintendo for two things. First, for my beatings. Second for starting a rivalry between my cousins and I. The previous owners/abusers of our used Nintendo were my cousins. My aunt had left the Nintendo on our door step early one Saturday morning. That Saturday morning wasn’t just any Saturday morning, it happen to be the same Saturday morning Nintendo released their “super” model.

When I went to visit my cousins the following weekend there it was-- a brand new Super Nintendo tucked inside a brand new entertainment center. The brand new entertainment center happen to be holding a brand new fifty-two inch TV. The moment my eyes graced their technology marvel I did what any ten year old would do. I through my self on the floor and started kicking and screaming. That happen to be the same day I used my first cuss word, which happen to be the first day I experienced the feeling of envy, which happen to be the first day my dad beat me. Well he didn’t beat me but he should have. And no, that probably wasn’t the first time I felt envy but it’s my first memory of envy and it was Nintendo’s fault, which meant it was the microchips fault.

Though my parents vowed to never let a gaming system into their house again they would later revisit their decision. Their new ruling would be reduced to a more diplomatic decree. They stated, “The only way a game system would be allowed into our home again would be if you paid for it with your own money.” Being ten at the time my parents assumed they were safe with their new and fair decision.

The following week I got my first job slinging newspapers. I saved for eight months and right before thanksgiving walked through the front door carrying a giant box. The look on my parents faces was priceless. “Where did you…” my mom looked over at my dad, “How did you…” my dad said. The cashier at Western Auto where I bought the thing gave me the same look that the check out lady gave Mcolly Culkin in Home Alone.

That thanksgiving was the worst in my families history. Since I only had one controller we fought so viscously that Mom delivered thanksgiving dinner to us in our rooms. The Microchip proved to reek havoc on my life once again.

My gaming envy took on a new form when Silicon Valley launched their first computers. Again my cousins got the first computer, not us. Again we got their old one and again I got trampled by my brothers over usage rights. It wasn’t until high school when my older brothers moved out of the house that I had time to my self on the computer. I didn’t have exclusive right because I still had to share it with my parents.

My first year of college I used my grant money to get my own machine. Steve Jobs had just launched the first iMacs and I was first inline. It served me well, mainly because it sat on my own desk, in my own apartment, free from my brothers’ reign.

I do my best to keep up with the latest gadgets. Though I survive on a college student's budget I work just as hard as I did slinging papers back in grade school. Working hard has enabled me to own a MacBook, iPod, cell phone and any other pop gadget that I have to have. The best part, I have exclusive rights to them all.