How the Internet has guided my life #BroadbandAndMe

I remember when I wrote my University personal statement I started it with the sentence ‘I was born with a keyboard attached to my hands, ok maybe not literally..’ and looking back over the 30 years of my life I have to admit that most of that time has been spent attached to a computer both personally and professionally.

I was lucky to grow up in a technologically forward thinking family with both my late maternal Grandfather and my Mother being keen on computers, my first being a Commodore Amiga which was released a year before I was born on which I learned to play educational games and made a life-long connection with computers.

I was also lucky to have attended a primary school which boasted a room of BBC Microcomputers on which we spent time learning how to program LOGO and played fantasy style games where you met various characters along a journey and made decisions which affected the gameplay.

Every year or two we would get an upgrade to our home computer, which my sister and I originally shared, before getting our own computers (hurrah!) so we could play games (I was addicted to the virtual pets game; Pets from Ubisoft as well as the Sims which I still play today!), and learn how to use Microsoft Office and other packages. Does anyone else remember playing Winnie the Witch and Where in the world/ time is Carmen Sandiego?

My love for computers grew exponentially when my parents decided to connect to this new-fangled thing called the Internet in the mid-90s which opened up a whole new world of online gaming, online messaging, chat rooms, learning resources etc. It was through playing the popular online virtual pet game Neopets that I first started to learn HTML in order to make my profile look pretty. Any child born in the 80s will remember the comforting buzzing of a dial-up connection going through.

Ultimately my love of computers and the Internet led me to my career in digital marketing, having studied Computing & Design before starting out in a junior position in a London agency and working my way up to managing a team before going freelance – one of the many benefits of working in a digital industry. Of course, I am also a blogger and put my computer skills to work here every day.

The Internet is obviously a major part of my life now that I work from home, it is my connection to my clients and the key to my livelihood! I am not the only one that relies on a stable Internet connection, in fact Talk Talk Business recently conducted a survey to find out more about how people use their internet services and here are the results:

70% of people said they had a broadband connection at work, such as business broadband from TalkTalk and 61% agreed that they use the internet daily for work purposes.
77% of those surveyed have noticed a change in the way businesses are run as a result of the internet with 35% saying their job is totally reliant on an internet connection – like me!
When asked what they use the internet for most, personal emails (26%) and staying in touch with loved ones (19%) were the most popular choices.
A huge 90% said they use the internet to keep in touch with family, while only 67% said they use it to contact colleagues and suppliers.
Finally, 86% agreed they are reliant on a broadband connection for recreational purposes.

I am very thankful to my late maternal Grandfather and my parents for starting me off on my journey in computing from such a young age. Computers and the Internet have gone on to shape my life through work and recreation. How has the Internet guided your life?