Check her phone
School and work can wait. Shannon turns on her phone and opens her preferred social media app, instagram. She scrolls through her newsfeed, which consists of family members and friends from other towns or states that she can’t keep in contact with as easily as she can her local friends. She follows a few of her hometown friends on instagram too, but most people post on instagram only every once in a while, maybe when going on a trip or having a party or event. More everyday activities are more likely to be shared in a group chat or on a community post on the local computer system.
Shannon also follows some celebrities on instagram too, and she notices one of her favorite bands, Lemonade Mouth, posted about their upcoming tour. It looks like they’re coming to perform in the stadium of the local college, only a 30 minute drive from her house! Excited, Shannon switches back over to her computer to make a post on the town BBS.
In the late 70s, some computer hobbyists thought that it would be useful if there was a place on the computer for all the people that were connecting to it to have casual discussions, or to post information about activities happening around town. With computers being a public good, however, individuals weren’t allowed to tamper with the computer without getting express permission from the local authorities.
For a long time, conversations online were either through private messaging or took place in discussion channels meant for more serious work. There was much discourse over whether chat rooms were appropriate, how they would be structured, and how they would be regulated, but eventually in the 80s, town computers began to implement common chat rooms with different categories for different interests. These sites are visited by all ages, though different ages tend to congregate in different channels. While there are many topics and chat channels to choose from, Shannon’s niches are the music chat room and the chat room for Marvel fans. The music chat seems to be the best place for this post, so that’s where she heads.
First she goes to the “culture” category. From there there are further forms of categorization, such as film, art, and music. She starts a new conversation under music, writing a quick post that explains how Lemonade Mouth is coming to perform and asking if anyone is planning on going.
She tags her post with the band name, “live music”, “local music”, and “meet ups”. People browsing the BBS can choose to read the entire music subcategory in reverse chronological order, or browse by specific tags if they are looking for specific posts. Shannon hopes that she will get some responses soon from local teenagers, so that she can meet new people. It can be hard for her to make new friends since she’s homeschooled, so she jumps at any opportunity to meet kids her age. She’s made some really good friends through her computer connection, some of which she met at open mics and comic swaps that she only learned about because of community posts.
What should Shannon do?