The kids of Japan were experiencing the exact same thing on the other side of the world. For kids like myself, these new forms of communication permitted artifice and image optimization on an unprecedented scale while also granting near infinite access to the self-curated images of those around us this technology of fragmentation and union is the paradox of the information age. Growing up at the dawn of Internet hyper-connectivity, I quickly learned that search for identity was often complicated by the intrusion of technology. In that time of identity in flux, I started investigating my sexuality I watched porn for the first time I cut my hair short in an act of radical self-possession and three days before my thirteenth birthday, I agonized over what my first Facebook profile picture would be, something earnest but cool enough to represent me. But most importantly, I-along with my friends and peers-spent those years engaged in two processes of highly curated identity-formation: While growing into myself and crafting an image to survive the humiliations of tween-hood, I was also constructing a version of me meant specifically for public consumption online. It was an embarrassing time of semi-adulthood that saw me sporting a lot of cargo shorts, letting my hair flow down to my shoulders, and dating my first girlfriend. When I think about the early 2000s, one element quickly elbows itself to the forefront of my memory: middle school.
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