Computer Survey

Stolen from Woodsprite:

1. When and why did you first get a home computer?

Well, let’s see…My younger son was about seven so that would make it about 23 years ago. Wow!

2. When did you first get Internet at home?

Oh, pretty soon after I got it. I started with AOL. On dialup! Painfully slow and very expensive.

3. How did you learn to use a computer and the Internet?

Pretty well the way I learn anything. First, jump into it and try it. Next, check the manuals. Manuals make more sense to me when I have figured out a bit of stuff by myself first.

4. When you first began using the Internet, what were the things you spent time doing when you were online?

I did then pretty well what I do now {only now I do more of it!}

5. Do you still do those things? What are your major things you do on the Internet now, compared to back then?

I no longer chat in chatrooms. I just lost interest in the whole thing after a time. I used to read Alt Support Depression for a while. I was also an active member of a group of womwn who had had or had just been diagnosed with endometril cancer. But once I was no longer depressed–thanks to medication–and was cured of cancer, I lost interest. What do I do now? Well, my browswer’s homepage is Google. I will give you a list of the bookmarks in my bookmark folder: Ebay, Netmail–so I can read my mail from Verizon’s servers if I want to, a site which will translate from English to Italian and vice versa, the weather channel for this area, American Express {for bill paing}, my bank, Amazon, Open Diary, Dish network {for bill paying}, Wachovia {for paying my car notes,} ING for my savings accounts, the site where I keep my pictures, Alibris and a couple of catalog sites.

6. Do you spend much time looking up information online? What are some of the primary things you seek info about?

I Google a lot. I look on line at the prices of things I might buy. I look for whatever I might be interested in at that time. Recently, since I have been diagnosed with glaucome, I have been looking at that. I did a lot of research on Lucca before I went there. I looked up a lot of information about my hip replacement…

7. Do you play computer games….online, or otherwise? If so, what are your favorite ones?

I prefer games I can play by myself like Bejeweled, and Alchemy and, of course, Bookworm. And Solitaire, of course.

8. Do you use Instant Messenger? How often?

When my sister was alive, we did a lot of IMming. Since I was in the States and she was in England, we had to choose our time carefully. I occasionally chat with my younger son who is in North Carolina.

9. How many people do you email on a regular basis?

Now my sister is dead, I usually just email with my sons. I also get newsmails from various places and the headlines from the New York Times every mornings

10. How important is email to you, in terms of communicating with people you could actually talk to in person or by phone or snailmail instead?

I never do snailmail at all these days. If I can’t email, I may phone but I prefer email.

11. Do you meet and talk with people online at any other Internet sites besides Open Diary?

No, OD is the only one these days

12. Do you or have you used chatrooms? What’s your opinion or feeling about chatrooms?

I used to do a lot of email chatting at one time but that has fallen by the way.On the whole, they are boring.

13. Have you ever looked up porn online?

Of course I have, but, again, that is one of the things I have lost interest in. Basically, porn sites are targeted to men and they are all much of a muchness

14. Have you ever had a romantic relationship with someone you met online? 

Yes, indeed. Fred and I met this way!

15. How cautious are you about giving out personal information online?

I am reasonably careful but anyone who has been reading my diary for a while could find me if he or she wanted to.

16. Have you met any unsavory characters online? Wanna tell about that experience?

Oh, yes. Nope! Only two in all the years I have been interacting with other people on line. Most of the people I met in Real Life have been exactly what they said they were on line.

17. On the other hand, have you got any really dear, true friendships with people you met online? What is the longest amount of time you’ve been friends with someone you know purely through online communication?

Yes. I have been friends with P. for  almost twenty years. I am not sure if he would count because we have met a few times. And Fred and I will be heading into our ninth year together this summer…

18. In what room of the house is your computer? For that matter….how many computers do you have at home?

My desktop is in the work/art room. Fred’s laptop is in the living room and my mac laptop is in the bedroom. When I had a kid at home, the computer was in the living room. When he got old enough to buy his own, it was in his bedroom and I had no problem with that.

19. Of the leisure-time activities you partake of at home…. where does computer usage rank? What things do you do more often than you use the computer, for fun at home?

I would say the computer is number one. I also read a lot and get spurts of doing art.

20. Do other family members in your house use the computer, and if so, how much and for what?

No, we have our own computers although I have borrowed Fred’s and he has borrowed mine occasionally

21. Have you ever checked up on them, to find out what they were doing on the computer?

No. Fred is an adult and can do what he likes on his own computer.

22. If you have kids, do you use something like tot-block to make sure they can’t access certain sites?

If I had young kids, yes, perhaps I would. When I worked at the library, we did monitor the screens when young children used the computers and their parents weren’t with them.

23. Besides the Internet, what do you use your computer for the most? Open diary, Google, pictures,

24. What brand of computer do you own? How old is it?

 My macbook was bought last year to take to Italy with me.My desktop was put together by a local business when Windows 98 was new!

25. What is the first screen name you ever used for anything you did online?

Hmmm, you know, that was so long ago, I can’t remember…

QUOTATIONS:

"Step by step. I can’t think of any other way of accomplishing anything."

Michael Jordan

None will improve your lot If you yourselfdo not.

Bertolt Brecht, 1933