My life on the internet

I've got a long history of being "social" on the internet. It started way back when in about 1984 when we got our Apple IIc and logged onto bulletin boards, listservs, etc. via the old DOS formats...the days before the true visual experience of the internet was born for the public. When we finally got a dedicated dial up line and the visual appeal of the World Wide Web improved with GIF images rather than text based images I started to really get into the whole social thing. While initially most of my use was really for research for school I would eventually become a member of different networks like the early iVillage, AOL, IRC and other such sites which eventually led me into blogging.

I think I started to initially blog in the very early 2000's (possibly in the very late 90's). It's been since then that the story of my life in all it's gory aspects have been online. My diagnosis of a breast lump and subsequent biopsy in 2003, my battles and successes with bipolar disorder, dealing with raising the family while the old man was deployed overseas...all aspects of my life were and have been online. I had a blog dedicated to Once a Month Cooking (OAMC) that I wish I kept somewhere because now I can't find the recipes I had. I connected with total strangers through continued networking on iVillage and other such sites. Then in the mid-2000's I joined MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Plurk, Friendster, Linked In and other such social sites.

At some point I became bored with most of these and pretty much left or ignored the other sites remaining only with Facebook. I'm not sure why I stayed there, but it's probably because I was able to reconnect with more people from my past than on any of the other sites. With the blogging thing starting again this past month I'm finding myself enjoying the writing thing again and maybe I'll even start a page with recipes...we'll see what happens.