I like to use the internet archive, known colloquially as the Wayback Machine, to view web pages from the dawn of the popular internet, the world wide web. Keep in mind that the popular web still isn’t able to drink legally, although that day is coming soon. I’m not talking about those AOL and Comcast days when they told you what you could view. For me, the post-AOL domination (mid 90s) is when things really started to cook.

For example, if you type”BuffaloGolfer Dot Com” into the Wayback Machine search field, you’ll get to see pages as far back as 2004. If you go to our precursor URL, “buff-golf.crosswinds.net” you can head back to 2002. I’m not 100% certain, but I think we went live in 2000 or so, so we have a few missing years to account for…but I digress.

In those, olden days, the web was all about content. Our model was a literary one. Magazine articles were considered brief experiences of literature, but you were stoked to see your name and words in print. Short stories and plays, novels and poetry were what people read (mainly novels) and they all seemed to go on and on and on (and that was a good thing.) As the web grew and evolved, we began to use more and smaller devices that truncated our field of view and simultaneously reduced our attention span. Social media was intended to be used to join people together; the by-product was the de-literization of a generation or more. We began to read posts and tweets and statuses and pins; we began to snipe pics of each other and post quick videos of our shenanigans.

My heart lies in the extended written word and I hope it always does. BuffaloGolfer utilizes Facebook and Twitter because we must get the word out about our work to as diverse and expansive a population as possible. We don’t use YouTube because unless you’re watching kids blowing air horns in trees bordering golf courses, there isn’t much out there and it’s too time-consuming to film. We might use Instagram one day, although it would essentially take the place of Twitter. The new one I’ve embarked on is Pinterest and I’m not sure why. I suspect it’s because more women than men use it and I’d like to have female readers and female opinions and, oh yes, female contributors on BuffaloGolfer.

When our daughters were younger, they had a an angst-ridden friend who was the queen of Tumblr. I remarked on a certain occasion that I wished I had her following of hundreds of angst-ridden teenaged girls. The daughters, aghast, wondered aloud how I could possible desire such a thing. I told them that anyone would crave such a concentrated, new audience. Thus spake Pinterest.

Follow Captured’s board Posterized Golf Course Holes on Pinterest.

Here’s the maiden board on Pinterest. It’s a collection of course and tournament images of my own, altered in Photoshop. It isn’t Warhol, Nieman or Dali, but it just might be a combination of all three. I’m not yet all that interested in having other people pin their wares to our boards and I might lock them down for access. Then again, I might not. It all depends on where the web goes tomorrow.