My first experience with a computer was in 2002, when I was 2/3 years old. My grandpa showed me how to play a bubble shooter flash game on his Macintosh. Several years later I would come home from school to play on the Commodore64 (Oregon Trail as well as a few education games/bits of software). It wouldn't be until age 5/6 that I found porn, which occured on the family computer. Around this time, my school was also beginning to introduce us to the world of computing, teaching us Windows, macOS, Linux, and BSD. Each teacher seemed to have a favorite (computer lab teachers) operating system, and so I was learning all 4 at once (I believe one of the short-lived lab teachers tried teaching us Plan9 to boot).
I got my first personal computer (all to myself) in late August or early September of 2007 from the Off-Campus Tech store for UAF (University of Alaska Fairbanks). It was a brand new Laptop running either Windows XP or Vista. I greatly enjoyed it. I can't remember the brand or model, but I am fairly sure it was a Toshiba. I do not recall the specs, but I know it has a DVD drive. I did not have internet access with this laptop, as the internet at my grandpa's home was still dial up until 2015 (we moved to Idaho in late 2012), and "nobody remembered" the password (I believe this to have been a white lie to keep me from easy porn access). This laptop I used for Space Pinball, and watching DVDs (mainly Scooby Doo, the Flintstones, the Jetsons, and various movies).
Some time shortly after moving to Idaho (my laptop was left behind as I did not think of taking it with me), I was gifted an iPad by my family. This was a 4th gen (IIRC) iPad. I quickly fell in love with playing Minecraft PE (Pocket Edition), watching TV Shows, recording a video series for YouTube (a series I called "10 Minutes with Archie"), and ultimately watching porn (though these were mainly sissy captions and drawings).
In the summer of 2015, my grandfather bought me a Dell Inspiron 3847. I quickly fell in love with archiving porn (via password leaks to premium sites like Brazzers), e-books/magazines, playing Minecraft and Roblox, as well as a few other odds and ends. I would burn DVDs with porn in an attempt to insulate myself from what I viewed as a threat, which was my mother's pending installation of "Net Nanny". While I would find out that this was not necessary (uninstalling it via a factory reset of my desktop turned out to be the most obvious fix), it began a love for downloading/preserving data in the event/s that that data would either be wiped from the internet, or be inaccesible to me.
Around 2016-2017, I took several computing classes at one of the High Schools I went to, mainly Intro to Graphic Design, and also Game Development. I got a few first place prizes, and was nominated (and won 1) for an award. My Game Dev teacher retired 7 years later, and maintains that I was his best and brightest student.
There was a period where I thought I was cool, and began to collect large amounts of old laptops. I mainly would re-purpose them, and take them with me to my college classes. I would regularly bring 3 laptops with me, trying to look like "le hacker", and once brought a total of 7 (which I used at the same time). I think there is a reason most of my classmates sat so far away from me. Either way, my preffered laptop of choice (2 of the 3 main ones were this model) was the Dell Inspiron 1545. With an Intel Core 2 Duo, I felt the power of "retro", and the courage of someone who cared about e-waste. As far as laptops go, this is my favorite of all time. However, as time went on, I found the physical weight and space requirement beging to weigh (pun intended) heavily (I had roughly 60~), so I purged all but a couple, but even those would see me donating or selling them in favor of my old, trusty 3847.
While there were several changes in how I stored my data, how much data I stored, the periphreals and whatnot over the course of the next few years, my main desktop remained the same. However, in Spring of 2019, I opted for a change, as I imagined myself travelling the world by summer. I purchased an Asus Transformerbook T101H from my local community college's bookstore, and switched to using it as my daily computer. I was attempting to downsize my digital life, as I felt it has become too complicated and complex for someone seeking a more peaceful and harmonious life. However, this would be short lived. In the Summer of that year, I got an odd feeling to not travel that year. I am glad I listened. I planned on leaving to Scotland in May, and to be in Bejing and the Shenzhen area around November.
In the fall of 2019, I convinced my grandfather to get me a gaming computer, which was to be used for school work. Admittedly I did not NEED an RTX 2060, but the other options felt quite lacking compared to it. We got it on a sale (this was a day or two after it released) for just under $1,000 before tax/extended warranty. This would replace my Transformerbook, which I sold shortly after hooking up my new gaming rig.
Fast forward to 2023, and I found myself trading the gaming PC to my friend (who then resold it) for an M1 Mac Mini he bought used for me. Ironically, these are still valued around the same dollar amount (roughly $300). The reason for the switch was due to my re-ignited love of macOS, something that showed itself after I became managing editor of my school paper (we had M1 iMacs).
I switched to using a 2015 13" MacBook Pro as my daily driver sometime in the late winter to early spring of 2024. I still would use my M1 Mac Mini, but I finally sold it by the end of that summer. I used a 32" ONN monitor so that way it would be easier on my eyes. Not many noteworthy things occured during this time, although I would like to note here that throughout 2015 to the present, I have experimented with different smartphones and other devices (though I would not come to use a smartphone in a non-hobby/tinkering setting until around 2021/2022).
Sometime during the winter or spring of 2025, I bought a like new 2020 27" iMac off of FaceBook Marketplace. I promptly upgraded the RAM to 72GB from it's original 8GB kit. However, this joy would be shortlived, as I accidently punched it off my desk while playing a VR Boxing game in the late spring. Thankfully the cracks were mostly relegated to the right side, with the couple that come out and onto the screen are rarely noticeable unless one looks for them.
I run macOS 26 (Tahoe) on the iMac, yet I have told myself (and others) of my plans/desire to switch back to macOS 12 (Monterey), though my patience that is required to migrate my software and saved things via a manual downgrade (having to wipe the drive and take 2-3 hours doing a reinstall) tends to make me apprehensive towards doing so (just yet).
It must be noted here that from the time of my first desktop PC to the present, there have been literal hundreds of unlisted systems that I tested, but spent such little time on that I have forgotten about them. When looking back at photos, I occasionally see one of these mystery/forgotten machines, but for all intents and purposes, it is as though I never used them in the first place
Years later, and I have had over 32 different smartphones I have used as my personal device/communicator. I like testing out different models and systems, so it only makes sense to me. I love the NXTPAPER technology from TCL, and so I have Beta Tested one of their phones months prior to launch.
I am more ambivelent towards phones, as I don't see them as a problem (outside of the environmental destruction they cause). Nearly all problems people have with them stem from their own inability to moderate their useage, and failing to recognize and correct their addictive tendancies. Smartphones are great and incredibly handy. Try using it as a tool instead of just a toy. You can play games, do social media, etc. on it and still be productive. Its all about perspective and how you interact with it on the day to day.