One of the trouble with modern day online is that is can be
tough to meet people who are local and also online. One would
think that it would be easier, being that a whole lot of people
now have the ability to go online, have email, join social
networking services like myspace, friendster, fubar, orkut, hi5
and a host of others, yet it isn't. If you belong to a school,
then GREAT - you've got it easy. If you go out to work at an
office... okay - you have a chance of finding someone local
online - but then if its workmates you have to really watch what
you say in case it doesn't get back to your boss. But if you
work from home? Don't go to starbucks? Don't want to "hookup"
(that's an important feature) - just want to make friends with
people who happen to live nearby? Very very tricky. Back in the
early 1990s, there was a thing called a BBS. Bulletin Board
Service. You and your fellow geeks would each set up their
computers so that you could dial (with your modem and telephone
line) each others computers. You would set up a BBS (similar to
a full-featured website, although everything was colored text
with a screensize of 80x25 characters) and call each other's
home computers, leave messages, make groups. Some BBS' would
have dozens or hundreds of local people on them, all actively
chatting away. All different ages, from teen to senior. And it
was pretty cool. Sometimes you'd meet some of the BBS buddies at
a local Duncan Donuts (the Starbucks of the day) or White Castle
/ McDonalds / etc, or just meet up at an empty lot by a
supermarket. You'd hang out, B.S for a while and then a few
hours later (around 2am or whenever the cops came by to break it
up) and you'd go home. Or you'd go to each others' houses, watch
movies, etc. In other words, friendships were forged through
technology. the same was true for CB radios. Local, geeky,
bonded by technological geekiness. Ah, I miss those days. but
perhaps with some of the social networking services out here,
maybe it'll get easier. We'll see. Ken Udut old geek.
