Hi I’m Ben Dinovelli — but then again, Sophocles once said, "I would prefer even to fail with honor than to say I know you guys."
Surrounded by the hype, the other night I indulged myself in the WWIS frenzy that has captured the attention (and Facebook newsfeeds) of the campus and the nation. With a minimalist interface, ‘what would I say?’ —an online app created by several University graduate students during the recent Hackathon— generates a status based on previous statuses written throughout the years, creating tons of opportunities for interesting amusement.
What was originally intended to be a brief mode of procrastination soon turned into a nostalgic exploration of my past as I rediscovered forgotten text in the generated statuses, remnants of inside jokes and important events that had once made up significant parts of my past.
Beyond the embarrassment I felt after being reminded of some of the more ridiculous and crazy things I had posted as an overeager high-schooler (including “Physics it’s over, I’m happier with someone else”), it was also a pleasant reminder of the transformation I had undergone since coming to the University less than two years ago.
At Princeton, sometimes I get so caught up in the present that I file these silly little moments of my past into the back of my head, placing them in some untouched folder to collect dust. While my online generated persona might say this is “To ease the burden of knowing what you think,” I tend to disagree.
Remembering these funny experiences is a healthy exercise in reminding us of ourselves. Not just the polished memories that we would have remembered anyways, but also the stupid and mortifying ones that we, at least until now, had successfully buried in our past. So on that note I say, try it out for yourself: http://what-would-i-say.com. You never know what you would say.