Just a short post today. The other posts from the week are still gathering excellent comments, so I want to keep those threads going.
Maria Farrell notifies me that it is OneWebDay, “the one day a year when we all – everyone around the physical globe – can celebrate the Web and what it means to us as individuals, organizations, and communities”. She relates how the internet has helped her maintain her connections with her old family and friends though they are an ocean away.
The Internet has meant that I’ve been able to maintain professional dialogues with colleagues, during a period when I’ve been home with two snotty-nosed kids. It has empowered me by putting me in contact with other parents with many of the same concerns that range from big issues like equity in marriage to little ones like good books for little kids. I’ve met people from different backgrounds and locations that have challenged my world view. As I get more involved in local politics, it has given me access to new information and a means to broadcast information to others. (I have a local blog, too.) As a parent of a disabled child, I have new access to scientific research and legal policy.
On the downside, I read less novels, and my house is dirtier.
Question of the Day How has the Internet affected your life?
Apt. 11d 
Well, it’s had less of an effect than email.
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Positive:
1. Many wonderful colleagues I’ve never actually met; one even lives in New Zealand.
2. Fewer trips to Freeport, Maine. Constant flow of UPS deliveries, instead. (Not all from Freeport.)
3. Much greater awareness of news from far-flung places. Have you discovered “Today’s Front Pages”?
Negative:
1. Increased awareness of assorted bands of kooky extremists who apparently also have new colleagues they have never met.
2. The never-ending search for ergonomic happiness.
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It has completely transformed the experience of living overseas. An expat is no longer really an expat. Together with cable TV, you can live abroad and still feel completely caught up with the daily zeitgeist in America.
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