1. Age 9: My first computer
I shared it with my brother and sister. We’d sit together, our mouths agape, playing Strip Poker in the cold end of the house. It was called The Computer Room. Mum eventually discovered our new-found love of poker. She took that 386 back to the store and had the game removed.
2. Age 11: My first email address
When I was 11 I got my first email address. I chose tort54@hotmail.com. I wrote it down on small pieces of paper and handed it out to my friends at school. This was back when a wacky email address was the bees-knees, ya know. A few years later, MBOX took Australia by storm, and I spent at least two days sending paint drawings to our fax machine via email. Amazingly, it still exists.
3. Age 14: Chattin’ on ICQ
ICQ was the first instant messenger system used by the global online community. It pre-dated MSN Messenger by a few years. I’d talk to my friends for hours, mostly about rude things and schoolyard politics, while causing some serious harm to my back from slouching in the computer chair. At the time honesty seemed so much easier behind the veil of technology–we felt no shame in talking openly. One day the veil backfired and I got dumped via ICQ. That really sucked.
4. Age 16: Starting a business
At 16 I started my very own design business. It was called Fruik. My website got 1,000 hits in a single day when Andrew Johnstone from Design Is Kinky posted it to his news feed. I made $200 redesigning the Royal Lifesaving Society’s newsletter. I really sucked, but people liked me, and that was all that mattered. I spent most of my time making websites in Flash and magazines in Photoshop. When I was bored I’d walk around aimlessly on Habbo Hotel asking people to dance.
5. Age 21: Beginning to blog
While at university I wanted a job at Right Angle Publishing. They made really cool things like threethousand.com.au and Rooftop Cinema. I started a blog to get their attention, it worked, and I freelanced there for a year. I stopped blogging on my first day. It had served its purpose.
Now, four years on, I’m at Native Digital, trying my hardest to make fun stuff that people love to use on the Internet. The place I grew up.
[...] on from Tait’s excellent post about 5 moments from his digital upbringing. Here are [...]