I downloaded Copernic 2001 last night. It is one of the best meta-search programs I've seen on windows. It lets you run internet queries in different subjects: books, newsgroups, addresses and then summarizes the combined results in a single pane.
I decided to search for myself in a couple of categories and came upon some old usenet posts from almost a decade ago when I was at Yale. (on ISBNs, Samuel Delany and race).
I was struck by my almost 7 year absence from the internet. From 1994-2001 there are no usenet posts or any other items I know about. Why did I leave? I wasn't afraid of the technology, heck I purchased some CDs online in 1994 before amazon.com was created. I speculate that I was waiting for two things to happen: the internet to develop more tools for finding communities (I think blogging and other items are on the cusp of making the discovery of social networks much easier than before) and my own maturity. I had to grow into wanting a public presence. My use of the internet seems to run in the exact opposite direction of those studies that have suggested increased interenet use is linked to depression and isolation.
12:13:21 AM 
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