by Annette Poro

Created on: August 20, 2009

New Uses for the Internet: How the World Wide Web Could Improve our Lives.

I grew up in rural Ireland in the 1960s. The nearest house was half a mile away. We had no telephone, no television, and my sister remembers when we had no electricity. My Granny who lived with us was a great believer in neighbourliness and was a great letter writer. She kept in close contact with all her neighbours, family and friends. Her communications to those who did not live in the area issued forth from her best fountain pen and were carried by me to the nearest post box, which was a mile away, down leafy lanes. The replies came, reliably, but not quickly, in the hands of Paddy the postman, sometimes damp from the journey on the back of his bicycle. And in that time and place, it was accepted that neighbours simply turned up in each other's houses, without appointment.

Today, I am an eLearning project manager. And a great fan of the Internet. So how has the internet improved my life? And what has my Granny got to do with it?

Granny's philosophy was that family, friends and neighbours were important. That you should stay in touch with those important people in your life that may be close or may be far away. We all know that, but keeping in touch is not always so easy. I moved. I moved again. I changed jobs, moved to a different country. As I grew older, I found that I lost touch with many people. Brothers, sister, former friends, colleagues, cousins, aunts and uncles, neighbours; all elsewhere. I was not like my Granny. I did not take out my fountain pen. Nor did I even pick up the phone. Weeks passed into months, months into years. Then it was too late. Or communications were limited to a bare Christmas card with annual expressions of good wishes. I sent Christmas cards to people whom I would not have recognised on the street, we were so long out of touch.

And then, gradually, sometime in the late 1990s, I became a regular internet user. At first it was just an information source. Then, some years on, I discovered that I could upload my photographs on Flickr; share them; view my sister's photographs. I discovered a site where I could build the family tree. I discovered forums, Facebook, You Tube.

Soon I was chatting with my sister and brother on an almost daily basis. . I began to know the minutae of her life again, and she of mine. This was something that had not been the case for thirty years. I got to know my in-laws. My cousins joined Facebook in droves. My uncle joined

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