There we were, crowded around my mother-in-law's blinking grey monitor.  There was a squealy bouncing sound, and then...we were looking at a message from a lady in Germany who liked the same kind of dogs as she did. Around the same time, my friend Robert at work showed me this cool thingie called the web (and some old-style BBS places where I could exchange information with coworkers).

A few months later, I had a nightly ritual of hanging out in an IRC chat room, talking with new friends who lived all across the country. I also knocked around a bunch of AOL chat rooms, shooting the breeze about TV & radio shows.

A couple of years later, Ted decided to knock the message board world on its ear and we became fully engulfed in UBB communities around the world. 

Now, almost 20 years later, the semantics have changed, but the basic needs remain the same. Humans need to connect with each other, and "social media" is just the latest incarnation of that need. So don't be intimidated by the tools...whether it's Twitter, or Facebook, or Squidoo, or even LiveCloud.  All you have to do is sit down and connect, using the tool that suits your particular style. 

We humans are waiting to hear from you!