It's almost ten years since I first discovered the Internet. How this baby has grown! And every time I log in I'm still thrilled. This evening, I have been looking at old pictures of Bakersfield, California, checking out hotels in Madrid - Spain and reading reports about England's most successful primary schools. It's like a window on the world. I often say to others that science fiction never foresaw anything quite as amazing as the Internet we now know so well.
Early Internet adventures included forrays into chatrooms from which I was frequently expelled by moralistic moderators. In 1998, I remember counselling a suicidal woman in New York - trying to get her to see that it is possible to emerge from the darkest shadows that life casts upon us. Every new day can be a new beginning. I don't know what happened to her - I lost her somewhere in the tangled worldwide web.
Now there's blogging. Sometimes I tell friends and acquaintances that I am into blogging and some of them have absolutely no idea what I mean. Blog? What's that? To me easy blogging is another wonderful extension of the Internet. I guess I have always been a frustrated writer and blogging allows me to write things and get them published in a professional-looking form without cost or very much trouble. It's so easy.
You could spend hours checking out other blogs from around the world. Every blog is different and they all reveal interesting things about how other people live and how they see life. Of course, the Internet and computerisation have always been led by America so it is no surprise that Blogworld has a high American population.
I have enjoyed reading "Friday's Web" (North Carolina) and "Free Thought By A Free Thinker" (San Francisco), "Brad The Gorilla" (Seattle) and "Hanging Hope on A Head's Up 1973 Penny" (Georgia) along with dozens of other blogs - "Blog by George", "Zandrea", "Retarded Rugrat", "And I'm Reading This Because..." (Sacramento Ca). As I say every blog is different. They have made me laugh, think, rage and occasionally, even though I am a tough old Yorkshire Pudding, shed a couple of tears. We are the citizens of Blogworld. We want to be noticed. We want to connect with others. We want to be participants rather than voyeurs. Thanks to all my fellow bloggers out there for showing me bits of your lives and educating me in ways our parents and grandparents could never have travelled.
They say that the internet was conceived and nourished by the American military machine but now it's in the public domain and we are exploiting it, subverting it, stretching its horizons. This is no longer Planet Earth, this is Blogworld!
Wherever the internet really got "started" (or became a popular tool for ordinary citizens) doesn't matter. It's the people who have adopted this magnificent means of universal communication that make it so wonderful. I, too, enjoy reading blogs from all over. For some reason, I'm particularly drawn to British and Australian blogs. I'm not really sure why, except maybe, I feel like I can actually HEAR the accent in the words, just as if I were listening, in person, to them (you) speak. I also love learning about other cultures, comparing similarities and differences. I like reading blogs from all over the USA, too - especially trying to decide who may be uptight, right-wing, yankee, southern, redneck, hillbilly, high-class, and then just your normal everyday joes. It takes me away from all the humdrum of life that nonchalantly surrounds me and casts me deep into an ocean of diversity and mysticism, even. I truly enjoy reading your blog because you write about different things, all the time. And you're so honest and humble and write from your heart. That, my friend, makes you one of those special people hanging out in cyberspace.
ReplyDeleteHey, old chap. Thanks for mentioning me in your blog. I am currently living in Seattle, Washington, though I have traveled and lived all over the world. Recently, I ran for mayor of Seattle and lost to the incumebent. Pity. My plan was to buy Downtown so that all of the earthquake-shoddy roadways would be on level ground.
ReplyDeleteP.S. I am no longer living in Seattle, Washington. I am living in Seattle, CASCADIA. Read all about it!
ReplyDeleteAye, Yorkie, thanks for mentioning me. Hey I can't even get my husband to read my blog.. but then do I really want him to. I did tell him about you though.
ReplyDeleteI've got message boards.. he dosen't go to them. But that's ok.. I do!:)
Friday, I love to browse thru the blogs.. the other day I found one in Russian, at least I think it was Russian. What makes us want to open up like that to strangers. Or does it take a certain personality to do that.
I have one friend who put up a blog to write about spiritual things, tarot etc. Then she took it down. She said when she sent us all the invite to go there that she wasn't the open up kind of girl and she might not be able to do it. I guess not.
I have just always blabbed about myself.?.
With 7 years of college under my belt you'd think I could spell doesn't
ReplyDeleteIsn't Google Earth just awesome.. I go to look at where I think my husband is sometimes and just look at it. I know that's sappy, but thatsa me!
ReplyDeletePuddin, thanks for stopping by. I really like your post though I see our solidarity as fellow bloggers does not include sharing the same template. I shall call upon my friend HitmanJ to help me html some changes, though honostly I like having the same template as you. I'm quite an anglophile and now feel a kinship with you that will probably go unrequited.
ReplyDeleteMore pudding! We need more pudding.
ReplyDeleteNonny,
ReplyDeleteOf course the kinship will go unrequited. Englishmen are notorious for shattering the fancies of American women. (Hey, I know the score-- I've read my Edith Wharton.)
That's why I married a Canadian man. Now I get many of the perks without the heartbreak.