In 1996 every family across our country was infiltrated. We received endless CD's in the mail to launch a new internet program called America Online. I was 13 and begged my parents to sign us up and they did! It was an amazing new revolution called "the internet", especially for a young teenage girl such as me, who had strict rules and curfew. Now, I had ultimate freedom online, and I went straight for the teen Houston chat rooms. Since I loved music with an extreme passion, and played clarinet, I created my user name as Muzicbabe. I began searching for other members who were in my age bracket, in Houston, and who enjoyed many of the same bands and hobbies as I did. I found several new friends always adding them to my "buddy list". We all exchanged phone numbers and had group conversations, sometimes with up to ten people, creating phone parties, talking and laughing late into the night. Many of my "AOL buddies" and I exchanged mailing addresses. We sent each other pictures, letters and became pen pals. As the years passed, though, I developed real life boyfriends, became active in after school activities, and excelled with my clarinet in wind ensemble, I strayed from the computer more and more. I graduated high school, and the late night AOL friends simply vanished back into cyberspace, rarely ever thought of again.
