Friday, March 31, 2006

Entering the 21st century...

I caught onto email early on in the Internet revolution, in the Autumn of 1992. With a lot of help from Richard! We were in the USA at the time and it was my lifeline to the UK. Early forms of forums (bulletin boards, or BBS as they were called) introduced me to the concept of online friends, and also helped the settling in process.

I didn't progress to web-sites until after we'd moved to Cyprus, Autumn 1997. I'd tried, but everything was so slow. Then I wanted to research home education, and the boys showed me how to use their computer (which was faster than mine), and slowly I got hooked. I started building my first web-site in 1999, and our family one in 2001, but after that I started trailing behind... it took me until 2005 to begin blogging.

And now, finally, I've started using Instant Messaging. I tried it a couple of years ago but couldn't see the point, although the rest of the family use it regularly to type 'live' to people elsewhere - mostly work contacts for Richard, friends around the world for the boys.

But a couple of weeks ago the Doulos installed satellite technology to allow them faster email connections, cheaper phone calls (including when on voyages between countries) ... and instant messaging. After Richard and Tim had both 'chatted' with Dan twice, I decided I needed to ask the bandwaggon to slow down so I could climb carefully aboard.

In the last four days I've 'chatted' twice to Dan, and as I've been typing this blog entry I also 'chatted' to Richard, who's in Morocco this week. I doubt if I'll ever get as far as using a microphone to talk to the computer, but a 'conversation' in typing with immediate response is pretty good. In moderation, anyway.

4 comments:

Jenni said...

I love instant messaging, but the danger ground lies in misinterpretation but that's true for anything over the 'net, be it in emails, forums, instant messaging. I think it all depends on who you're talking too. Perhaps I should get Yahoo installed on this computer again so we can chat, and so I can chat to Dan too. I've not used Yahoo for a long while.

Deb said...

I *love* IM! Can even nag dh while he's at work ;-)

Email me your IM name (or use the contacts form on my blog if you can't find my email address).

I've just installed Skype too. Now I just have to find the headphones... I know they're here somewhere...

Anvilcloud said...

In general terms, I don't like IM. You can email on your own time and people can read it and respond on theirs. But I can see the attraction in your case.

Lora said...

I gave IMing a try several years ago and wasn't overly impressed. I like to exchange short chatty e-mails. It gives me more time to thoroughly respond. Although, I probably chould give IMing a go again sometime soon.