Most of us have grown up with the internet. We don’t really stop to think about the way it has changed people’s lives, but I still remember the very first computer we owned, and how we experienced the wonder of going online for the first time. It wasn’t as easy and accessible as it is now. You had to install a modem and connect it to your telephone line, and when you finally managed to make contact, you got that distinct sound that was the sound of success. I still feel happy when I hear that jingle! You had to pay for the time you spent online and every page you downloaded, so it was necessary to jump in and quickly jump out again. And to you young people it might sound like the Stone Age, but this was only some 20 years ago! (Now I feel old….)
Anyway, I thought about that today thinking about my online friends. I’ve found that once you have a common interest, the connection is so easily made. For me that interest is Nintendo gaming, once I get to chatting about that I can’t seem to stop (these blogs are proof of that). With my first Animal Crossing game I found a community in 2006 of people who enjoyed the game as much as I did, and although the group chats didn’t last, I did keep in touch with many of them. As I mentioned in one of my earlier blogs I first tried to keep the game chat alive with my own website “Ladies & Gaming”, and when that ended there was Facebook. Facebook has been a medium that made keeping in contact and forming a group of like-minded ladies easy. And it’s no obligation: if you feel like participating you do, and if you don’t want to that’s okay too.
The internet has brought me friends with the same gaming passion from all over the world, from Finland to the UK, from Japan to the US, and of course friends in my own country, the Netherlands, too. And with some ladies I’ve formed a friendship in real life, that has become very important to me. So, I can safely say that the Internet has enriched my life!