Katie Baker, The Confessions of a Fomer Adolescent Puck Tease

I thought this was quite well written, and it may hit close to home (too close, even) for some of our SJ community here, especially those who live larger lives on-line than they do in reality. Probably not a read for everyone, but it's also an interesting look back at the earliest stages of the Interwebs, and message board/listserve culture.

http://deadspin.com/5697455/the-confessions-of-a-former-adolescent-puck-tease

 

Amazing story.

 

I read it and it was fascinating.

 

There's a long line of these information age confessionals.

The most recent being another Gawker employee, Emily Gould.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/25/magazine/25internet-t.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&hp

But the me-generation/adolescent-into-womanhood memoir goes back at least as far as Joyce Maynard in 1973.

http://www.joycemaynard.com/columns-articles/eighteen-yr-old-looks-back.shtml

 

If everyone followed the Pics of GTFO rule, we'd have fewer of these stories.

 

Quite well written for sure.

 

Betting her inbox (hahahahaha) is full of stories right now saying "shit, I thought I was the only one."

Great story, especially how she was caught.

 

Surprised she wasn't murdered[/earlyinterneteratrope]

 

My first impulse was that the story was a beautifully written, suspenseful story in which the payoff didn't live up to the build-up. But then I thought about how some of the best dramas on television - "The Sopranos," "Mad Men," "LOST" - were tremendous at building anticipation to the point where you couldn't even take it any more. Think about, for example, the time when Don is shocked to find Betty home when we know that the teacher mistress is sitting in the car. It was excruciating to wait for her to walk in on the scene, and the storytelling lost absolutely nothing because she didn't do so.

This story seems a lot like that. The journey itself is the point. And she's the villain, not him, which is a nice little twist on the standard-issue Internet cautionary tale.

 

I wish I had the attention span or dedication to invent a fake life for myself.

At least then I'd have one.

 

From the ages of 13-15, I lived a largely online life. I was kind of an introvert and a little awkward at that age, and AOL could mask both of those very well. I wasn't a compulsive liar like Katie, and I never met anyone off the Internet, but I did get to know quite a few people and talked on the phone with a couple.

Around the time I started driving, I started developing a close circle of friends at school and left the AOL life behind. But honestly, that story did bring back some odd memories.

 

I liked it very much.

My odd chatroom story -- I went into AOL chatrooms for years -- was that I was always me, always my age, always described accurately in my profile. That might be stranger than the other.