Look how far we've come

I've been thinking back to the early days of home ed and it struck me how totally different things are for me now, and probably others. I didn't realise it at the time but we began as soon as Big Brother was born, sixteen years after our Big Girl. We made the decision proper when he was about 3. Our first contact with other home edders in our area was through the eo contact list and newsletter. I found out about who else was 'doing it' in our area by checking out the listings for our county and seeing who was nearest. And didn't they all sound exotic? I remember thinking 'Ooh, I wonder what they're like and whether we'll ever meet them.' We found out about the local group that met once a fortnight, went along, liked it and kept going. Outings were decided on and arranged at the meeting and if things changed we used an old-fashioned thing called the telephone. If we wanted to meet up outside the group again the phone was used. Some people even had little tiny ones that they didn't have to talk into, they could type little messages and send them to others who had a similar device. ( My Big Girl finally dragged me into the 21st century by flinging her old one pityingly at me.'Here Mum, have this. It'll come in handy'. I rebelled, partly out of Luddism, but mostly because of the cost, but succumbed, at least to pay as you go). I gradually became aware of an even more exotic way of keeping in touch which involved odd squiggles and symbols. You had to choose a 'handle' as we used to call it in the days of cb, and then add a bit to it, which meant that you could then send messages to others who had also undergone this strange ritual (mostly my up to the minute friends who were still working). I remember being pretty Luddite about that too.And proudly so. I could access information on the interweb, but I know I didn't really 'get' how a lot of that was done (elves maybe? holding up cards to the screen like Dylan did). I don't remember exactly when I discovered email groups. I think my first was the eo list. Those funny email thingies came in thick and fast. Too fast for my poor brain. I got moaned at a lot for filling up the inbox with 'rubbish'. Then slowly but surely I learnt to handle it a bit better, found out how to read messages on group websites and then I was truly up to speed. Now I have so many groups I have to cull them on a regular basis. Looking back I honestly don't know how I managed without them.Or that's the way it feels. They are such a huge part of my life now. I have a group for every possible need. It takes all my time keeping up with what's going on with all of them. Then I discovered that I could check up on what my friends were doing in their everyday lives. It started off with people I actually knew, but soon I could peek into total strangers' lives and even pass comment on their doings. I now had cyber friends. Finally I actually managed to make my own online journal. Mine isn't as good as I'd like it to be. There's so much untapped potential, full of feeds and widgets and other stuff I don't understand. The computer calls to me every time I pass it, and I have to resist the temptation to sit and 'listen' to all the chat that's going on 'out there' (or should that be 'in there'?). I even join in on groups where I feel at home. And now I even run a few groups of my own. Who'd've thunk it? And what's next? I wonder.