15 years

On a cold and wet weekend some 15 years ago, I signed up with AOL and went online. Here is what I said back in February 2011 about the first decade: It is February 2011; nothing odd about that. Well, it was a decade ago that I joined the digital revolution, or at least the online version.

A decade ago, after a week of gate guard, I went home with an AOL disc in my hand, powered the mighty computer on and loaded the disc and waited. And waited.

But of course that waiting was nothing compared to the waiting ahead.

Once loaded, all these wonderful icons on the desktop, I double clicked on the AOL one and listened to the soon to familiar sound of the modem dialling.

And wait.

And wait.

And in time, I got the welcome to AOL page.

I looked at the screen expecting the tidal wave on information to swamp me at any moment. I looked and the screen looked back. I saw there was an e mail in box, and I had a mail. Welcome to AOL it said. Thanks.

Now, thanks to an aborted college course 18 months previous, and so was aware of search engines. I saw a box in which to enter a word to search. So, I typed

Pen pals.

Yes, I decided I needed a full inbox and that digital friends was the way to ensure this happened. So, I clicked on a link, waited, waited. The page loaded. I clicked on the link to the ads section. And begin to scroll down.

After a while I selected people to respond to I wrote initial letters. And, I did get many replies, and with some of them I did make real friends. I say friends, because that is what I made. I had not met any of them yet, but it turns out that I would meet some in the future. So, my weekends began to be filled with writing letters to and from people all over the world. I guess some of us learned how each other lived, and how that despite our distances, our lives are pretty similar.

That was 5 years ago, and my pool of online friends, in the sense I talked about above is now just two. Two with whom I write to on a fairly irregular basis. One is in Oregon and the other is in Colorado. We write maybe once every three months each, swap news, views and what we are reading, watching or feeling. In that time I have seen them and their families grow, get older, and for the most part their children have grown into adults, and I am so lucky to have shared that journey, if from a distance.

I am now back on Facebook, but I have a love/hate relationship with it. On the plus side it does keep me in touch with distant friends and former colleagues. On the negative side it does also cast a light into some of their darker sides with what they share and post. Twitter I used to love, and is still wonderful for keeping in touch with news and following tweets during Norwich's matches and the re-run of TOTPs, feels like being in a party of friends or fans. But the hate mob is called put way too often, and seems like almost anything said can offend someone, somewhere. At least here, I can voice my thoughts without offending anyone, as so few read it.

And then there is Flickr: 35,000 shots posted, ongoing projects include: orchids, Kent churches, Kent pubs, City of London churches, trains and so on. I have met some wonderful people through photography, visited some wonderful places, seen some rare and remarkable things in the pursuit of a shot or two. Photography and my interaction with others through that will continue. This year I hope to arrange a few get-togethers involving orchids here in Kent, arranged around the Japan trip which also coincides with the peak orchid season!

Something my friend from Oregon said this week, about losing touch with people online. I had so many friends when I was down on my luck, we would offer each other support and that. But as I pulled myself up by my bootstraps, they dropped off quickly. So, those of you, wherever you are in the world, no matter how we got to know each either. I treasure each and every one of you, and you have enriched my life with either your words, your outlook or maybe your art. I thank you all.

In the next week we will reach blog # 1500, and for that I will list, in no particular order, my top ten films, and maybe my top ten songs as well. We shall see. I have done the films, but comparing a science fiction against a comedy is impossible.