Friends Around The Planet

It is so very nice to have friends who live in other countries. Years ago when mIRC was the quintessential chat program I chatted daily with about two dozen people and they were scattered all over the planet. We broke the barriers of time zones simply by becoming sleep deprived. But, we were all aware of our condition. Sometimes, many times we'd pull all nighters and sit up chatting about anything that came to mind.

We'd gossip about who wasn't online and who was. We'd talk about the weather, the politics of the day, the cultural barriers we might be respecting or breaking or who was having an online romance and who wasn't. Not only that, but we all had great fun. I learned more about computers, networks and people over that time period then I ever could have in a course of any description.

Like all things enjoyable, change and life intervenes. Some of the changes include but are not restricted to: many of the people I enjoyed grew up, got married, and had children or didn't. The Internet also changed and the social networking of chat lines grew into the more sophisticated Facebooks and Twitters of today.

I'm sure I changed as well. I look back now with warmth and gratitude on those years because they happened at a time in my life when it was absolutely necessary for me to get a grip on my own life or wither away from the adversities that took place behind me. With my face in the computer, the rest of the world did not exist unless I turned around. I had to do that a lot as it happens because I was not only responsible for a 40 hr a week job, but also for another 30 hours of publishing a newspaper with my computer.

My chat line was my reward. My relax time. I experimented of course with every aspect of it and made more friends online than I ever had in person. Some of them continue to this day and some of course have moved on to heaven only knows what, but I'm sure they sometimes think of those days too. Do we wish them back? No, I don't think so. They were great at the time but they served their purpose for us all in one way or another. I'm sure some of us would like to meet of course but the costs of doing that would be highly prohibitive for most of us.

For all we know, some of them may have died. People tend to do that too, usually unknown to us. I'm sure if that sad event happened, their relatives are not concerned with who they might of known online that might appreciate knowing. But that was then, and times have changed to the point that today, relatives would have that concern and find a way to inform online friends.

I shall be forever grateful to my mIRC chat friends. They all helped me be me. They freed me in so many ways and taught me so very much about life, love, and the world of the internet. I will speak on this topic again because I want to look up some of the nicknames from those days.

In the meantime, stay well and thank you for visiting my blog. :)