Lost connections
This inspired by this post by Ava on lost connections because it resonates.
I made a ton of "friends" online when I was younger. There were also a lot of people who I followed as a fan but who probably never knew who I was.
Some are dead. Heather Armstrong being the one that comes to mind; a huge shock to me at the time, although I had not followed her in years, and she never even knew who I was (I was a teenager following a massively famous 20-something blogger)
Others are around, but quiet. Meggan comes to mind. She hasn't updated her site since 2020 but I follow her on instagram and know she's still kicking. Sometimes we like each other's posts. HI MEGGAN.
A few other folks I still see around (mostly thanks to instagram) - Aisling who still has a site and has kind of gotten back into blogging recently, Amanda... I don't even know if she has a site anymore but she has an instagram account! Clementine, Katy who I have on facebook and can tell she is still alive, in spite of not blogging since 2021. Jem. Whitney.
Kind of a small list.
A lot of people I have just... forgotten? Which is sad. How could I forget all these people I once spoke to all the time? Who am I missing from this list? Will they read this and be terribly insulted?
I also have somewhat dropped off the internet in the past, mainly because real life became all consuming and the internet become less alluring. I was a lot more self aware of how I sounded, how my words are permanent, and how incredibly self absorbed it could all be.
But then I miss people and I want to know what they're up to, and I'm grateful for those I did know back then and those who I still have some loose thread of connection with.
Anyway that's it.
Sometimes I think the internet is nothing but a ghost of what it once was, but I think there is still value there if you search for it (the people building in communities like neocities, for example!), and I'm grateful for what it has given me in terms of connections with people I would have otherwise never met.