I Believe Introductions are in Order : Claire

My name is Claire Renic and I’m a second year WGS/rhetoric student at the University of Winnipeg, with plans to continue my higher education in women’s studies, with a focus on sexology. Being born in the nineties means I am a child of the internet; my generation has grown up connected, and this sense of connection shows no sign of slowing down.

My relationship with social media and screen is one of the longest term relationships I have to date. For as long as I can remember I’ve been interested in screen, which resulted in both parents implementing restrictions on the amount of “screen time” both my sister and I took in daily. In all honesty, I can probably count on one hand how many days those rules were abided by… but the battle over screen went on for years. When my sister and I first got cell phones, they had to be turned off and put downstairs for the night.... again, you can imagine how long that lasted. 

Some of the earliest memories I have of screen relate to social media, specifically chat rooms and other “messenger” type websites. I know it all started for me with Myspace and Windows Live Messenger, two sites majority of people my age have experience with. Both sites are now either inactive or (mostly) abandoned but nonetheless, they are the birthplace of much of my generation's experience with the internet and social media. It's interesting to note that people are still intrigued by these sites and that they have shifted their purpose to function as alternative forms of cultural artifacts; I've spent nights going through old profiles with friends for a laugh (theres even a VICE article series revisiting the old Myspace pages of different celebrities), so these sites do still have something to offer us, and I think that is really important. 

I'm looking forward to contributing to the conversation Jaque and Fiona have been running, and I hope that I'll be able to add an interesting, millennial perspective on the topics of mommy blogging (this should be especially since I'm not a mom) and the online privacy rights of children. This is an important conversation to be having and I'm happy to be a part of it.