A typical day for me on the Internet begins when I get home from work in the afternoon. It helps me to unwind some when I turn on the computer, grab a glass of tea and begin,
Usually I check my e-mail first and see who has written me. I send out request for technical assistance with my computer, write to friends, last night wrote to CBS to ask them not to cancel one of my favorite t.v. shows, and many other uses for the e-mail. I can get answers to questions almost as soon as a person writes the mail and sends it to me.
Then I usually move on into the newsgroups where I look for information. I am a respiratory therapist and there is a group for us there, my wife is a nurse and there is al least one dedicated to nursing in there. People from all over the world have access to these newsgroups and share information with others, post questions they may have or just communicate feelings on a particular subject. There are literally thousands of newsgroups at this time and I "narrow them down by selecting, or "subscribing" to them. This just means that when I open my software to view the groups, only the ones I select or subscribe to appear in a window. I can view all the groups if I choose, and type in a find command to see if there is a group related to a specific topic. Depending on the provider that you choose, they may or may not censor the groups. There are a lot of them out there that are definitely not suitable for younger children (I'm 44 years old and some are not suitable for me), but they are there because freedom of speech on the Internet is protected. I know that there are some groups on there that should be banned as far as I am concerned but nobody asked me I guess.
I then move on and do some "searches" depending on what I am looking for. For instance if someone asks me for specific information, I go directly to areas where I am likely to find what I am looking for quickly. There are many "search engines" available to use, where if you are looking for information on how to build something or a better way to do something, or new information on a procedure or test, you should be able to find it. All you have to do is type in a word or words in a search engine such as "Lycos" or "Yahoo" and you will get an answer usually in a few seconds to a minute or so, depending on your equipment, the quality of connection you have, and how busy the net is, after all there is a whole world full of people with access. If I am just looking around for interesting things to see, I take my time and follow different links to areas of interest and there is a lot to see.
Today before writing this, I got on the Netscape Chat (Inter relay chat) where you can communicate by typing to other people around the world in "real time" and covering many topics. I just chose to "listen" in today to see what everyone was talking about, and it seemed to be a lot of younger people that were discussing music and musical groups in one of the "rooms" that I visited, and the relationships in another room that I checked out. You do have to use some caution in these "chat" areas because there have been some real bad mannered people that use not so pleasant language and some of it has been directed at me, when I just "logged on" and hadn't really ventured any opinions yet. You just have to tolerate it as long as you care to and then if you tire of any particular individuals, you can choose a command to "ignore" that person and from that point on, you can't see what they type.
If it sounds like I spend
a lot of time on the Internet, it's because I do some days, others I just check
out a few things and then get off. My wife tends to feel like a "computer
widow" some times. If you search long enough you can get almost any information
you are looking fork I have only had a couple of subjects that I couldn't find
exactly what I needed, but that is not usual. You can make reservations at Las
Vegas hotels, plan trips, view samples of shows, and a lot of useful things
on the net. It is just plain fun to explore. Good luck if you get involved,
it's easy and will get you hooked in no time.
Donald Daugherty
daugh@connecti.com
http://www.connecti.com/~daugh