2004
Lauren, Matt, and I were lying on my bed playing Nintendo 64 (Diddy Kong Racer to be precise). Since there were only two controllers, Matt sat at the edge of the bed playing around on Lauren’s laptop.
“You have Facebook set as your homepage?” Matt was laughing.
“It’s so addicting!” Lauren said.
I was fourteen years old. Lauren was eighteen. When I asked what Facebook was, she attempted an explanation.
“It’s like this thing where… you can like see people that go to the same college as you.” That was it. How informative. Then she and Matt began stalking Lauren’s future freshman roommate. “I wonder if she likes country music. She doesn’t look like the type,” said Lauren. “Message her and ask,” said Matt.
Lauren’s generation was the first to form relationships (and online “friendships”) prior to meeting one another. For decades, the summer leading up to freshman year of college was plagued by the anticipation of The Roommate. For Lauren, the anticipation lasted only a few hours- the hours it took for Stephanie to accept her pending friend request.
2005
For the first year of Facebook’s life, every high school student envied college student’s membership to this cool club. Facebook existed for high school students, but it wasn’t nearly as developed nor popular as the college version. In addition, high schoolers and college kids were incapable of ‘friending’ one another. The GREAT divide. And so came the day when the bridge was gapped, and us wee one’s were finally able to connect with the big kids. Intergenerational stalking.Soon after, everyone was allowed to have a Facebook; providing a school email address was no longer mandatory. I remember feeling territorial, as did my friends (literal friends and online friends- big difference). Facebook was the land where we posted pictures of house parties and updated each other on the latest and most outrageous YouTubes. Adults had no place making themselves part of the Facebook community
2011
Why bring up all this Facebook nostalgia, if Pixxlz is Pixxlz and not Facebook? The answer: like Facebook, Pixxlz has evolved. In fact, our evolution is now intertwined with that of Facebook’s. For years now, Facebook has provided it’s users with the ability to upload pictures. The aim of photography has changed: now, people take pictures with full intent of posting them online, where hundreds of other people will view them/ comment on them/ “Like” them. Gone are the days of taking pictures just for the fun of it- for the most part. Facebook has conditioned us to crave an audience, and what better way to please our audiences then to provide visuals of our Thursday nights/ trips to Nantucket/ semester abroad? This is where Pixxlz comes in. As a digital printing company AND as a new technology, our aim is to materialize the memories (print picturesà make posters) and remind photography of its original purpose: quality images made to last.
Julie Daniels