The above picture is my weemee (different from wii mii). I use her as my avatar for aol instant messenger. I’m sort of amazed at how much she looks like my 8 year old self, despite the fact that she doesn’t even have a nose.
It has gotten to the point that, even though I wasn’t a child when I had my first virtual experience, it is hard to remember a time when I haven’t been virtual. My family got a computer in 1987. For the first couple of years, we used it for writing papers and maybe playing a game or two, but in 1989, with my own money, I bought a modem and the Prodigy software. From then on, I was hooked. It started off with some music bulletin boards. I still remember one particular girl on one particular band’s bulletin board, who was like the keeper of the band. She thought she knew everything and had a deep spiritual connection with the band and, boy, you better not say anything bad about the band, or you would have to face her wrath. It’s funny that it seems like no matter what virtual community I’ve encountered since then, there is always someone like her.
Anyway, from Prodigy, I moved onto AOL. I remember staying up until the wee (unfortunately I didn’t have a weemee in those days) hours of the night chatting with people (those were the days when random strangers would somehow find you) on instant messenger. I also played moderated trivia in the chat rooms. That was a lot of fun.
I sort of flitted around aimlessly after that, landing in this community or that and not really finding a home, but in the late 90’s, I got very active in the Buffy on-line community. I’m not even going to get into that as I could write a whole book about that experience.
Then about 5 years ago, I started blogging. I have 5 or 6 blogs out there in cyberspace. One is very active in that I post on it every day. Others are just floating around sadly inactive.
I also am very active in an artist’s community. Just about every weekend I participate in something called the Weekend Drawing Event. Each week a member posts photos and then we all choose what we want to draw or paint and then post the work and comment on each other’s work. It is something that I look forward to every week and I really have to say that finding this community has had a significant positive effect on my life.
Anyway, I know this post was supposed to be about our first virtual experience, but I couldn’t just stop there. Even though those earliest experiences were the most exciting, it has been the most recent that have had the biggest impact on me.
