I LOVE the Internet…

March 7, 2013

lisa on computerI’m pretty sure that almost whenever the internet comes up, I’m talk way more often about hating the it than loving it. (Spoiler alert: Tomorrow’s post will be about hating it!)

But there sure are some things about that I adore.

Since starting this blog (a bit over a year ago), I opened my heart way (way) more to technology than I ever had before.

I finally jumped on bandwagons that I hadn’t seen the value in.

I got this blog, for one thing. I adore WordPress. I can’t imagine a better place I’d rather manage my blog than on WordPress. It’s really simple to do posts, and it’s really simple for people to subscribe and interact with me. I love it.

Blogging can be hard sometimes. Sometimes you (or at least I) wonder, “Am I too harsh on this or that?” “Do people hear the wink and a smile in my ‘voice’?” “Is anybody interested in anything I have to say?” “Does anybody like me?” So many questions! I could go on forever.

But then, I get random emails here and there from someone who says they love my blog. If even one person loves it, it all seems kind of worth it. (Right? Or is that silly?)
Another thing adding to the blog’s worth is that my dad calls me pretty much every morning to tell me what he thought of the blog post. I love that.

(Side note: When I first started the blog, my dad was all, “I don’t need to read your blog. I know everything already. I talk to you everyday!” That is a super true statement. Yet, he read it once or twice then grew to love it. Now he’s a subscriber who comments by phone call practically everyday. (Yay!))

The blog has been a really fun way to meet and keep in touch with some fun people. (And it’s probably been a wonderful way for people from my past to check on what I’m up to without having to actually contact me. So, hello middle school or high school friends lurking in the shadows.)

lisa mac computerIt’s also been a great way for me to keep some memories for myself! It’s also been a nice exercise in trying to write something everyday. That something may not be amazing, but I suppose getting in the habit of writing is an important one to be in.

Besides the blog, I also got a twitter! As you know from my constant loving twitter talk on the blog, I love twitter! I met some amazing people through twitter this year. One wonderful woman even started a separate twitter account just to try to spread the word about me and my fundraising to the world of the internet.

(Uh oh. Time for twitter bragging… which is actually probably a pretty silly thing to brag about.) I got tweets from a musician I love (that’s right, Lance Bass). I got retweeted by a writer whose twitter feed I love. I got followed by some cool people/organizations. (Yes, even Ben & Jerry’s follows me. :-))

I saw an amazing contestant on Jeopardy! and my heart broke when he lost. He actually corresponded with little ol’ me after I found him on twitter! Amazing how you can connect to these random wonderful people in the world. Twitter is spectacular.

Most importantly on the subject of twitter, I was tweeted by my role model – Mayor of Newark, New Jersey – Cory Booker – and he tweeted me back. Not once, or twice, or even three times. I think we’re up to somewhere around 8 tweets.

Speaking of Cory Booker, the internet made this happen. What?

The internet also provided a way for me to raise thousands more for my charity than I would’ve been able to without the internet. A surprising amount of money came from complete strangers who heard about me through twitter or Facebook. So, the internet was really useful, and did some awesome good.

This doesn’t have a lot to do with this past year specifically, but the internet allowed me to talk more often with my friend fighting (at the time) in Afghanistan than our written correspondence would’ve. (Of course, we still did send stuff, ’cause you know, that’s better in a million other ways.)

There are a lot of advantages to the internet. And while I like to think of myself as a little more old school, preferring to have my head out of the computer when possible – this year or so of throwing myself into all the online stuff has really made me see many more benefits than I ever really appreciated before.

2 thoughts on “I LOVE the Internet…”

  1. I can completely relate to everything you said, especially the part when you created your blog. 🙂 My thoughts exactly. 🙂 My husband said same thing, he doesn’t need to read my blog but now he’s my #1 follower …and commenter. LOL! 🙂

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