Remember back in the day when the phonebooks were used for more than booster seats and for the Power Team to rip in two?  When your answering machine message said “sorry I couldn’t get to the phone in time” and it made sense?  Back when Prodigy was the predecessor to AOL?  When the modem was annoying because it took up the phone line AND sounded like demons were trying to escape the 7 levels of hell?  Before Al Gore invented the Internet?  There was no such thing as Facebook, Myspace, online dating, church online or highspeed Internet.  Roadrunner was still the cartoon bird.  Email still had a hyphen in it.  That was then.

Now times have changed.  If you still have AOL people look at you funny.  Most people don’t know what a modem is anymore because of wireless.  Phonebooks are a huge waste of paper, space and time because Google knows all.  You can go to church online.  You can even go to small groups online.  Twitter and Facebook have become the best way to reach someone leaving Email hoping to stay alive.  Times definitely have changed.  Millions of people are using the Internet to find community instead of the old fashion ways.  I read a statistic that said in the past year about 40% of the adult American population use online dating services.  Now you don’t have to bump into someone on accident on the street corner or hit on a girl in the bar or marry someone from your high school.

Recently I had the amazing opportunity to hang out in person with several people from the online community I am a part of.  There were only three people of over 20 that I had ever actually seen in real life before.  I love that it is possible to have real supportive, loving, caring and fun community using the Internet!  I had such an amazing time getting to “meet” so many of my friends.  Yes, there are drawbacks, but they are still there for me.  They are connected with the things going on in my life.

I know there are doubters out there.  I know some people just can’t wrap their minds around having a real relationship with people that are only on the Internet.  Maybe for them that doesn’t work, but I am a firm believer that if you are truly seeking it out, it is there for you.  The other night was proof of that in my own life.

What about you?  Do you have real community online?  What do you use to stay in touch with them?