The internet didn't only changed our lives, it completely influenced a new generation.

My father being a computer scientist, I've always had a computer. But I really felt a change in my life the day I started to get the internet. I remember, I was in Junior high school. My brother had driven my mother crazy to have the internet so one day she came back with a modem and a 10 hours/month connection with Club Internet. I swear these 3 hours a month they gave me totally changed my life !

The sound of the connection was totally surreal and access to a website page took forever but it was working. I associate this time to the transition from childhood to teenage hood. I started to open myself to the world. So many websites, so many information were there, I suddenly couldn’t remember how I had done before. I had a passion for the Olsen twins, but they were quite unknown in France, at least in my circle. I found many people - well, girls - all over the world who shared my passion. For instance, I became friends with a Russian girl, who taught me a lot about her country. But the biggest thing I made was a website. I totally dedicated my life to it. I searched every piece of information I could get on the internet or on the magazines and shared it. I tracked down every pictures and posted it in my many galleries. I was confronted to problems of space, so I created other websites and posted their links so I could multiply my main website’s categories. When I get back to my room – we got 30 hours a month of connection at this time and it wasn’t even WiFi so I had to share the computer – I didn’t play with my dolls anymore. I was constantly thinking about which article I could write, how I could organise my website, how were my e-friends.

So here is how internet broke my habits. I began to share more, to know more people, to speak and write in English, to focus on a project. My website actually worked very well, I had many visitors - still girls - and was even referenced in magazines. This made me realize how much I loved the media. Without the internet I wouldn’t be here, at the CELSA today. The internet did not only broke my little girl’s habits, it also lead my life right were I am.

Since then, I've always tried include the internet in my habits. I don't do the queue anymore, I buy train tickets on the internet. I don't let myself fooled by a shop, I compare prices on several websites. I don't buy news things all the time, I buy secondhand stuff on eBay or Priceminister. I don't go over the limit on my cell phone plan, I chat on Facebook. I don't copy-paste what I find on Encarta for work anymore, I look all over the web and compare the results. I could go on forever like that but I'm gonna stop. It seems that the only thing the internet didn't change is me being a chatterbox !