It's very easy to get your knickers in a twist about the internet. I keep reading about social media and wonder where I fit into it all, and then slap my forehead with the realisation that i'm already doing it. I blog, I tweet and i mess about on Facebook; what others call social media, i call chatting and having a conversation with lots of people. I'm quite a chatty person; I'm not overly confident in huge groups of people, but in smaller groups you just can't shut me up. I think too much a lot - i like to share those thoughts, I guess. What is life, really, if not a long conversation about stuff? About thoughts and experiences; about memories and future plans.
What really excites me about the internet, and life online in general, is how we can see it change even as we sit quietly typing our next blog post. The online world already feels different to how it did when i started this blog in 2006. I got my first email account in 1998; i can't remember when i first searched the internet, though i can remember my first trip to eBay (2001). I remember my dad typing a program into his BBC Basic computer, line by line, to make a game we could play - that was very early 80s.
My niece or nephew (who will be born in 2010 - our grandmother was born in 1899. Life is amazing!) will never know the pleasures of making a mix tape by recording music off the radio onto a blank cassette tape (and trying to stop recording just before the DJ starts talking again) or waiting by the home phone hoping a boy would call. I never knew how amazing the very first black & white television looked to my grandparents' eyes; by the time i was born a man had already walked on the moon.
I feel tiny in the face of all of this, yet can see that life on- and off-line is full of so much potential, so many new opportunities to learn and communicate keep coming our way. I'm glad we all get a chance to contribute to the conversation.
How funny you mention making the mix tape from the radio. That brought back so many junior high and high school memories. I still have some of those tapes...somewhere. And, the whole social media thing, I have been blogging since somewhere around 2002 or 03, can't remember, but I have loved, loved, loved the connections I have made with so many kindred spirits. Wouldn't have it any other way.
Posted by: Lu | Oct 01, 2009 at 03:21 PM
I love that my Dad is so much a part of this new world. If I want to get in touch with him, I can use Twitter, Facebook, email, his own blog, skype, my blog, or even snail mail or the real phone (cell or landline)! I treasure the connections I've made over the internet, especially with artists across the ocean that I only have rare opportunity to meet, if at all.
Posted by: Kelly | Oct 01, 2009 at 03:26 PM
it is amazing what we have seen and what our children and our children's children will take as a matter of fact. waiting by the phone...god, what a horrid mix of giddy and sick at the same time. and making mix tapes....by the radio, you just brought back a childhood of music for me.
now, let me go get my hairbrush so I can sing Gypsy just like Stevie Nicks again.
Posted by: charlane | Oct 01, 2009 at 04:33 PM
It's funny that you mention your grandmother. My grandmother is 90 years old, and has seen an incredible amount of world changes in her lifetime. I hope that if I live that long I can maintain the love of life, wit, and charm that she still has every day. Thank you for a very thought provoking post, as always!
Posted by: Alexis | Oct 01, 2009 at 04:35 PM
I love your chatting!
Posted by: Marianne @ Zen Peacekeeping | Oct 01, 2009 at 09:05 PM
it is pretty amazing when you think about it really. i have friends that i've made that i may never meet but we are indeed friends. i love that i can sell things i create from my home and send them to people all around the world! can't imagine how it'll be for my children!
Posted by: susan | Oct 02, 2009 at 12:57 AM
Susannah, I think about all of this daily....really, I do. I wonder if I will remember, in 20 years, all those things that are ancient in 2009. Will I remember listening to The Partridge Family on an 8-track tape in my dad's station wagon? I hope so...at 41 years old, I think that I should be archiving all my thoughts so I always remember where I started. Thanks for jogging my memory today, I still own some of those mix tapes from some ex-boyfriends ;-)
xoxox
Posted by: Jennifer White | Oct 02, 2009 at 03:56 AM
Like you I am a chatty person and the internet is just a way to find an outlet. Some days I love it, other days I don't love it so much. Me and facebook have a complicated relationship.
When I was born in 73, my grandparents had just bought a black and white TV. This TV was there all my childhood and was replaced when I was 18. My husband bought a new HD TV flatscreen shaninigans stuff about 2 years ago. He now wants a new one! Why? No idea, because as soon as he talks about it, he sounds Chinese to me.
Dharma (my not even 3 year old) says: Mami's Ipod is pink! or: Mami can you make music on itunes...
sigh...
Posted by: Mel | Oct 02, 2009 at 08:31 AM
As much as we like to look back and smile when thinking about radio recordings and receiving letters (on the paper, in an envelope!), we just cannot deny how much internet makes our life easier. There will always be an argument that real relationships disappear and that one mistakes reality with virtual world but even so... As long as one knows where's the boarder line, when it's good to be on- and when it's better to just stay offline, we're good...we're actually really good!
Posted by: aniutek | Oct 03, 2009 at 04:16 PM
This is a fun blog. These prints on the next post remind me of The Anderson Group, here in Nashville. I found you by way of Chookooloonks. Sniff. Came here looking for that soup recipe. :-)
Posted by: Leisa Hammett | Oct 07, 2009 at 07:31 PM