In this reflection on both adolescence and a bygone era of the internet, Gary Grimes brings to life the vibrant online community that shaped his teenage years. Be prepared to get nostalgic.
Both my computer and media literacy were advanced for my age; my Big Brother fandom was where these two competencies intersected. Not content with leafing through the pages of Heat magazine to devour gossip on ex-housemates, for the show’s eighth series I decided to get in on the action myself, so I set up a fansite where I would post photos of the newly unveiled house and regurgitate articles from the Sun about the rumoured twists in store for the show’s latest contestants. Once the series began, it was my ambition to be part of the weekly press cycle for ex-housemates.
This dream was then crushed by Emily from Big Brother 8, a 19-year-old Peaches Geldof lookalike who had been ejected from the show for using the n-word. In an early display of journalistic acumen, I found her private MySpace page and reached out to her, to request an interview for my site. ‘Hey,’ she replied. ‘I would be down for this but you’ll have to go through my agent.’ I wasn’t yet familiar with the channels of communication for a disgraced reality TV contestant, so you can imagine my shock when Emily promptly blocked me after I responded in earnest: ‘I can’t go through your agent – I’m 11.’
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