GIST

It came as a shock to me 5 years ago to realize that I have an addictive personality in regards to my relationship with technology. Although I can speak to my obsession with Tetris and various other forms of technological games, I must admit that the iPhone has become my second layer of skin heightening my senses. Everywhere I go, it goes. The iPhone has not only allowed me to be constantly connected to the world, but it also has become the platform through which I receive instant gratification. It supplies my demands. Although it is sad, I have no sense of direction. Sure, I can remember specific places, but ask me to go left, and sometimes I have to make an L shape with my left hand in order to not move right.

 Hi GIST, my name is Isabel and I'm a junior English major with a concentration in creative writing.

I suppose I will have to go with the rather overly-obvious answer and claim "The Internet" as my most formative technology (though it's tempting to claim the microwave oven and laud the joys of popcorn). More specifically, the parts of the internet used to communicate. The earliest memories of the internet that I am able to dredge up are of ICQ, a chatting program that I recall as being popular with my peers as a preteen. I also joined various forums as I grew up--I discovered that I could communicate with a whole lot of people, many of them very far away, and many of them way more interesting than my fellow preteens.

Growing up, I was always a performer. Throughout elementary school, I acted in plays and danced ballet. My career aspirations at this point were limited to anything that allowed me to be on stage, spotlight trained on me as I shared my talent with an audience. You might say that in my younger years, I was somewhat of an exhibitionist - I gained personal gratification from being watched. In fact, the larger the audience, the better. Many performances were documented on cameras and were both still and moving images. They're still at home, gathering dust. As I grew older though, this love for performance started to fade. Maybe it was because I was tired of it or maybe it was because I had reached adolescence and had turned into the angsty teenager that refused to listen to my superiors.