How I met your father, or, Internet courtship in prehistory: 1997, the internet was only just becoming ubiquitous. I entered college a rare bird because my family had had internet at home for a few years by then. GCSU issued every student an email address back then. Mine was [email protected]. They also made available a handy option to email the entire student body: [email protected] It might shock you up know that this student.all function almost immediately began to be abused. Spam, chain mail, and general silliness took over our intranet right away. Soon, we were all receiving dozens of useless emails per day. Being as world-weary as I already was at the wise old age of 18, this frivolity got right under my skin, so I decided to become an early crusader of internet seriousness. I picked a random name from the many useless email senders, one Phillip Viohl. On this anonymous soul, I poured out the full weight of my ire. I dont know if you are aware; but we are in college, not kindergarten. Could you please stop sending out such stupid chain mail? It is supremely annoying. I expected the matter would be settled; but instead, I received a shockingly smart alecky response: Oh, Im so sorry, princess! Will you ever forgive me?! Clearly, this Phillip person was a glutton for punishment. As a college freshman, I naturally had a midnight college radio show. Ever the marketer, I responded to this Phillip person, I might consider forgiving you, if you listen to my midnight radio show. Surprisingly, annoying chain mail sender Phillip Viohl not only listened, he called in to talk to my co-anchor & me; and even formed my first and only ironic midnight fan club. After a few weeks of email sparring & late night on-air radio call-ins, this Phillip fella said, You know, we could be sitting next to each other in a class, we should meet in real life. (This was before the age of internet staking, after all.) The only safe meeting ground I could think of was the downtown coffee shop. I dressed up in my late 90s finery. He showed up in oversized jeans, a tie-dyed t-shirt, and floppy blonde hair. But then, he smiled. :)
Posted on: Mon, 06 Oct 2014 01:33:05 +0000
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