Coming of Age in an Interface

This autoethnographic essay explores the role digital technology has played in shaping my social life and sense of selfhood. As someone who grew up online and later studied computer science, I write from the dual perspective of both 'user' and builder. Through personal narrative and media theory, I trace how my relationship to the internet has shifted across childhood, middle school, high school, college, and now, moving toward a future shaped by platform fatigue, digital nostalgia, and a desire for more intentional connection. I draw on cultural critics and theorists such as E.M. Forster, Guy Debord, Olia Lialina, Jia Tolentino, and Grafton Tanner to examine how social media platforms structure our interactions and performances of identity. Ultimately, this project reflects on how online spaces have both enabled and constrained my ability to connect, and what it might mean to log on differently in the years to come.