So my story has a quite strange beginning: I could not speak until the age of 3. While I was doing speech therapy, my mom had the ingenious idea of reading to me every night as a way of communicating with me through books. My earliest memory is of me reading a Ladybird nursery book while my mom made strange noises (that was her way of trying to get me talking). As you can see, I learned to read before I could even talk. Literature has ever since been a part of who I am. I read books like I breathe air.
Fast forward a few years, I had my first e-mail account. My dad created it for me and it was his ‘brilliant’ idea to fashion my e-mail id after his: sakshi_uae@hotmail.com. I used that account for 8 years until Microsoft transformed Hotmail into Outlook in 2012. As the years passed, I learned how to use Microsoft Word, which has since played a significant role in my writing process. I forayed into the world of social media for the first time when I (secretly) created a Facebook account in 2007. My childhood friend Asha introduced me to it and since I was just a neophyte (or plain stupid), my first Facebook post is this:
Since then, Facebook has continued to be my predominant social media platform (I don’t like Twitter!)
I have also been an avid blogger since 2010, when I created my first Tumblr account (the Tumblr blog I use now is from 2011). My love for blogging compelled me to create a short-lived WordPress blog about women’s rights and their contributions to society. Through blogging, I realized I could be an activist of social change. I became more active in this arena when I started working at NGOs and village schools where I taught poor children English.
Embarrassingly, this was my version of being ‘cool’ when I was 15.
I became serious as a writer when I created my first (and probably only) digital magazine on teen health. It was an exciting experience that made me realize that I loved writing. I also wrote my first published article on personal care, which appeared in an independent magazine called one8one. But when I had to write a short story for my English class, I realized that I was more of a ‘non-fiction’ writer because I like writing about life and the world.
However, the year 2012 was a very hard time for me personally as I had to deal with the loss of a loved one. Thus emerged my phase of journal writing that started from the creation of an online journal, which changed to an art journal and finally became a paperback diary. It was an experience that transformed me as a person and a writer, because I was able to vent my anger and frustration and also reflect on my life. Journal-writing was my therapy and a way to cope with life.
It was interesting to condense my experience with media in this narrative because I could see the growing role that it played in every aspect of my life. Throughout the process, I realized that media has also had an overarching presence in my writing. It has challenged me as a writer and allowed me to explore my hidden depths. No matter how many people curse modern media, I am confident when I say that I have become a better writer because of technology.
And now I present my timeline:
http://www.tiki-toki.com/timeline/entry/336107/My-Digital-Literacy-Narrative/
