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I am who I am because of these pieces of technology, websites, and app. My participation in digital communities has allowed me to explore parts of myself that I didn't know existed. I didn't know what bisexuality was until the internet. I didn't know much about feminism until the internet. I wasn't born liberal - I chose to be educated and find where I stand. Morals and beliefs can be changed. I was lucky enough to have good parents, but they couldn't teach me everything. I have gone through many spaces and sites and devices. The DSi, though no community, gave me the idea of creativity. It gave me memories that will last forever. It gave me the idea that I can have fun by myself. YouTube, though not much interaction, gave me a place where I could laugh and share interests with people. I could feel like I wasn't the only person in my room. And Wattpad, the app everyone thinks is weird. This site gave me the chance to express myself without being held back. It helped me feel comfortable in my own skin and inspired me to help other people, even if it was just giving them a smaller universe to dive into. The space that was the most welcoming to me and my personal development was the community of Wattpad. At first, I didn't think an app like this could give me a personality. When you first start out as a writer, your audience isn't there. It's when you start to take off and life happens that you realize how much of a community you truly have. I get to enjoy stories with people who I don't know, but we can laugh and bond together in the comments. Wattpad has always been incredibly inviting, no matter the interest or type of person. Every type of person you can think of is on Wattpad. People with different pronouns, people with various sexualities, people of different races and ages and classes. Everyone is allowed to come together on this app and be one with each other.

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The Greatest Showman Cast - This Is Me (Official Lyric Video)

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The Nintendo DSi was my first ever techy item. It had no connection to the internet, but it didn't matter back then. I had about ten different chips that had games on them: ZuZu pets, dog games, puzzle games, Mario kart, etc. I would spend hours on it, boredom not a thing anymore. I was allowed to decorate in the games and take care of pets and just have fun. This helped shape my identity because it allowed me to be creative and to learn about the online compounds that goes into games. I would take so many photos on it and draw on them to create funny photos or "cool" photos. Before Snapchat filters, the DSi had their own. I used it to capture moments I thought were important to me like when my old dog, Diezel, had on sunglasses or when I had gotten a shortcut that was way too short. This piece of technology was the start to my online life. I never realized how me I was back then until this class. I was just discovering what I liked and tuning it to my own personality. The idea that I have evidence of how my personality changed throughout the years and shaped who I am today is mind-boggling.

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By the time it had turned 2014, I had moved on from my DSi. I had my mom's old tablet and had discovered YouTube, one of the internet's greatest inventions (in my opinion). I was watching videos from Minecraft videos to prank videos to vlogging. Each YouTuber I subscribed to had their own personality in which I loved and adapted to. I think authenticity speaks great volumes here because old YouTube was incredibly authentic. Sure, people made videos for money, but they started out doing it because they liked entertaining people with the same interests as them. In the article Online Identity by Alice E. Marwick, she stated, "...people who use social media to stay in touch with their fans are expected to be accessible and 'real'" (361). These online celebrities are definitely expected to be vulnerable and open with their fans. I think in the time I discovered YouTube, most of these internet personalities were 50/50, but you could tell. Some people had real conversations on camera, others put on a mask to hide their real selves. I like to think that the people I watched were real. Even now as some of split off from YouTube and joined other media, I see the same person I had before when I was 10.

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Wattpad is my safe space. I've been writing on it for seven years now. My feelings about it haven't changed a bit. I love Wattpad. I love that I can share my amateur work with people who love the same things I do. I love that I can read stories that envelope my brain and bring me into a completely different universe. Wattpad has been socially proclaimed as a fangirl app/website. I agree, but the context of tone and statement people use when describing it makes it for me, as a user, embarrassed. They make it seem like a bad thing. I only tell close friends that I use the app because they don't judge me for it. Either way, I use it a lot. It is a refuge for me. I can dump my feeling into stories and onto characters or distract myself with happier and comforting stories. No matter who the character is based off of, the authors make them theirs. Fiction is called fiction for a reason. Through my journey on Wattpad, I made countless friends, inspired countless people, and bonded with countless people like me. Wattpad has given me this space of my own to produce and use whatever and however I want. My personality has been shaped because of this app and continues to mend and mold for the present and future.