Gratitude List / 2 Minutes of Appreciation: The Internet

I remember the first time the concept of the internet was introduced to me. I went to a school with two magnet programs. One for math and science and one for writing and communication arts(the one I was in). The science and magnet kids were introduced to it first, and apparently one of them figured out how to hack into some credit card company's data base and stole all kinds of money and ran away from home. He was found, arrested, and then put on some kind of list that will follow him and pop up on his record for the rest of his life....I don't know if this is the truth or an urban myth that was spread at our school, but the internet was this vast, amorphous thing "out there" that was supposed to connect us, but it was kind of weird and sci-fi. We all got our netscape account and the go-to search engine at the time was Lycos. When I went to college it was still this new fangled thing that was still not too commonplace---it was novel to be able to talk to my friend who was studying abroad in England or Ohio, but I was also still writing them letters(Imagine!). Now it governs almost every aspect of our lives from paying bills to, communicating, to organizing events, running businesses, entertaining ourselves, finding our mates, making friends with people we may never meet in the flesh, and learning about anything and everything you are curious about.
There will be a day in the future where I will be telling my kids about the days when we didn't have internet and they will look at me in wonder as if I was living in a cave with my knuckles dragging on the ground. I am so thankful for this thing that connects us and allows me to see my niece's face in real time even though she is hours away.

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