Don't look back in anger
I was reading a post by gossipguy17 about how he belongs to the lost generation. While reading this I started to think about how my own generation differs from others, particularly the generation that lives and breathes the internet at the moment
My first computer purchase consisted of me walking down the aisles of PC World, until I reached what I considered the most up to date and expensive machine and buying it without really knowing what I was getting for my money. When I got it back to my flat, I realised that this remarkable machine ad a modem in it that would allow me to connect to a weird and wonderful place called the internet. It came with a program called Compuserve, and after registering I pressed the button and after a few weird noises coming from my machine, it was annouced to me that I was connected. And so started my life long love with the internet.
Those initial days were filled with traumas and failures. Dail-up connections were slow, yes you guessed it this was even before broadband. 
I also remember the most annoying for other people was that when I was in the internet the telephone line would say I was engaged to many people, including my mum, could never get hold of me. Although it did make it look like I was extremely popular and that people were calling me all the time. With the addition of another line, this problem was solved, but the dail up also brought another problem with it. The fixed monthly payment plan for broadband was not in place for dail-up and so BT very kindly used to charge you 1p per minute at off peek times. This would soon add up as one hour on the internet every day for a week would be £4.20. Multiply this over the month and you would get roughly £16.80. Ofcourse I was rarely on for just an hour, especially at weekends, I my phone bill was becoming larger and larger by the minute....and I don't mean literally.
It seemed a life time went by before we had a fixed monthly payment scheme and the opportunity of having broadband, certainly increased my internet viewing time. Playing online games such as Meridian Online, Everquest and Dark Age of Camelot took up most of my time, but there became a time that I started to move my interest away from these games and more onto the social network aspect of the internet. Although I still play World of Warcraft, I find less and less time for these games, but still enjoy them. I was never one of those people who had a MySpace account. I first got involved in Compuserves' Worlds Away online community then moved onto facebook. I was using Twitter when it first appeared, after discovering and listening the podcasts such as net@nite. As blogs became popular, I created more and more. Wordpress, blogger and even Pounce (which I don't think exists any more) all helped me to record my life online. With this can the need to change and style the blogs and the pages I had and it was soon that I made the enquiries to create my own domain after my wordpress themes became boring and couldn't perform the changes that I required. With this, came the need to learn some HTML and CSS and I enjoyed the self teaching part of this and the podcasts that came with this venture, typically Boagworld and CSS-Tricks.
Now I live in a world that runs almost parallel with my real life one. A world that almost charts my every more and emotion and reports it to all to see. Although many people assume that these two worlds are identical, they are not, since we only let people see the world that we want to on the internet. My world there is neither popular or interesting and I have never assumed that I am recording it for the world to see and view and comment on, but more importantly as a record of my life and what I am doing and thinking. I enjoy it, and I seriously mean that, its a nice feeling coming up with ideas about things to post and to link and if anyone wants to look then thats great, and if they don't then thats great, because in the end I am enjoying myself.
So I don't look back with anger that I didn't have the technology that people today have. I look back more to say I was there as it was created, and without it, I wonder how many of the 'lost generation' would not have some friends that they have today that they have found on the internet. If anything I am looking forward, because with advancements in technology coming thick and fast, I seriously cannot wait until the next spring forward.
Have fun!
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