7 Ways to Communicate with Friends and Family Using the Internet. Bingo - Good for the Mind?.
When I started using the Internet, it was primarily to communicate with my boyfriend after I went away to college.
Emails were simple text messages and connection speeds were 14K. Twelve years later, that boyfriend is my husband and email is colorful, elaborate, and instantaneous.
Friends and families who once used to keep in touch infrequently with high long-distance rates and slow postal mail are now getting net savvy and using new modes of communication to stay closer than ever. Here are 7 ways to use the Internet to connect with friends and family.
1. Email. It is almost a no-brainer, but it needs listed because many people do not use it to its potential. If you only have email access at work and do not want to use your work account for personal email (a good idea!), try a web-based service like Yahoo and Hotmail. Create address books to send messages to numerous people at one time. Make sure that you understand netiquette (etiquette on the Internet) such as not typing in all capital letters (it is SCREAMING) and be careful not to forward along spam. Check out any possible hoaxes at Snopes.com.
2. Build a family homepage.
Use it to post family events and information such as new baby announcements, directions to the wedding, and vacation pictures. You can get a free homepage through some Internet providers like AOL. Other companies will host your page for free if they can advertise with banners on your page. Our first page was a simple page using Microsoft FrontPage that gave information about our wedding. Our next was a baby announcement with pictures within hours of our first daughter being born. If you don't want to create the page yourself, use a quick and easy template like those at Babies Online.
3. Start a message list. Allow friends and family to choose whether they want to stay connected by email or web by creating a distribution list such as a Yahoo Group where members need a password to join. You can keep the list small by including only immediate family or make it large by including your entire high school graduating class.
4. Instant messaging. Instead of phone calls, talk instantaneously online with a messenger service like Windows Messenger or AOL Instant Messenger. You can see when your friends or family are online and correspond with them by text. This is usually one on one interaction unless you join a chat room with multiple people. Newer features in the messaging programs including web cams and file sharing.
5. Digital pictures. Did you know that you can upload your digital pictures online and share your album for free? Find a good digital printing company such as Kodak and you will likely be able to email a link with pictures to friends and family for their own viewing. Depending upon the service, they may even be able to order their own prints. This saves you from having to figure out how to resize the picture or attach huge files to your emails.
6. Message Boards. Called by different names such as bulletin boards or chat boards, message boards allow you to post messages by topic and allow others to respond. These can be public or private.
You can host your own if you have a website, join another website as free members, or pay for a private board hosted by someone else. Depending upon the host, you will have different functions such as the ability to add pictures, receive emails when people respond to your posts, or control membership.
7. Start a blog. Short for "web log," this is basically an online diary. Friends and family members can keep up with what you are doing on a daily basis. It is not as interactive as the other communication methods above, but it has its benefits.
Specific uses for this might be a pregnant mom, a new mom, or someone with health problems. Free blog services are everywhere these days. In some services, these can also be called "journals."
In the 21st Century, communication with family members is becoming increasingly faster and cheaper. The only question remaining is whether that is a good or a bad thing!
Tricia Meyer, J.D., has spent more than 10 years on the Internet helping others save money, connect with friends, and gather information. She is the co-owner of Helping Moms Connect.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/
When we think of bingo,
genius and brainpower don't always spring to mind; these attributes have tended to be reserved for poker and other games of skill and luck. The image of a grandparent sitting in a community hall with a cup of tea and a card of bingo does not lend itself to the intrigue of psychology and mental agility. However, according to a study by the University of Southampton's Psychology Department, bingo may not be the trivial pastime many would take it for. Researchers there insist that bingo keeps the mind sharp and equate this as especially important to people as they get older.
The tests conducted
revealed that bingo players were more accurate and faster in tests that measured memory, mental speed and their ability to absorb information from the environment around them, than those who did not play the game.What seems to be the key advantage to the sustained playing of bingo is the concept of time. There is no doubt that games such as chess, poker and backgammon all stretch the mind and keep the brain functioning. Whereas the hand-eye coordination needed for bingo may not be as exhaustive as for other games, the time constraint in which players must check their numbers is key to the sustenance of mental agility.
The tests comprised of 112 people within the age brackets of 18 to 40 and 60 to 82. Half of each set played bingo. The results concluded that all bingo players were more accurate and quicker than non-players. Interestingly, in certain tests, the older players did better than the younger players. More and more research is supporting the theory that a regular partaking of activities that exercise the mind is very beneficial to the maintenance of optimum mental functioning as we get older.
Younger bingo players tended to be faster, but the older ones were more accurate. Many people have suggested that the reason people dismiss bingo as a "junior" gaming pastime is because we so often associate it with pensioners. The social stigma of bingo has kept it out of the major casinos and therefore reduced its respect amongst the "hipper" echelons of today's society.
Many would be led to conclude that the above study is simply out of proportion in the sense that a game of bingo is hardly a satisfactory workout for the mind in terms of endurance and mental skill. To an extent they would be right. But what the tests seem to be suggesting crucially, is that it is the prolonged or regular partaking in the game over a sustained period of time that will lead to cognitive benefits.
Then of course there are those who believe that any form of gambling being proclaimed to be beneficial to the mind is nothing short of an aberration. Whilst certainly milder in terms of the funds that change hands than other gambling games, bingo is still a game where one pays money to gain money and as such has been criticised from certain groups in society. However, the social aspect of the game cannot be overlooked and it is this type of play that would be encouraged to facilitate the mental benefits as concluded by the study described above.
In the UK, there are around three million bingo players. It is hoped that this study and the growing body of research around it will help to promote the game to those who otherwise would have written it off as something to be enjoyed with gardening, tea and everything else we assume people over the age of 65 suddenly develop a passion for.
About The Author
John C. Thorenssen is professional gambler and work as consultant in Royal Club Casino New York. He wrote articles about gambling and gambling strategies. Most of the articles will be included in his new book.
Online Bingo - www.OnlineBingo.co.uk - Your bingo resource
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/
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