Social Networking

The world's largest particle physics laboratory, CERN, has been in the news lately and by now most people will probably know that it was here in 1989 that the Internet or World Wide Web first came into existence. A neat irony that! In order to break up atoms, it was necessary to bring scientific minds together by inventing a brand new means of communication.
I don't suppose Tim Berners-Lee and the others who first set up the original 'internet' ever dreamt that it would become the sprawling giant that it now is.
There have, of course, been some downsides to the whole project because any tool that human beings create can be used to harm as well as to help but overall it has been an amazing force for transcending borders and boundaries and opening up the field of knowledge to people all over the world.
And, what's more, it has been very useful for enabling people to keep in touch with one another all around the world, or even to help create new relationships altogether.

In the last few days, I've had a couple of interesting personal examples of this.

First of all, through Facebook, I received a message from a young man who had once been in our youth fellowship in Duntocher, over 20 years ago. Inevitably we had lost touch and I had no idea where he was or what he was doing.
Now, thanks to the internet, he has got in touch with me and I discover he (and his family) are in Canada and involved in a Presbyterian Church there.
What moved me most, however, was the little postscript he added at the end of his email:
"PS. You'll never know just how close I came to chucking in the shipyard for the cloth! You inspired us all!"

And then, just today, I received an email from Australia with the subject-heading "Do I know you."
Apparently the sender had (through Google) randomly stumbled upon this blog and my name rang a bell.
So he wrote:
"Are you possibly the Iain Cunningham I knew in the late 60's, early 70's from East Kilbride who attended Hamilton Acadmey at the same time as I did. The comments and tone of the entries on the blog are very reminiscent of the young lad I remember although the photo does him no justice at all."
What did he mean?? I haven't changed a bit! ...Have I?
To both Dougie and Wullie I'd like to say - if you are still reading this blog - thanks for getting in touch!
And to Tim Berners-Lee (and everyone at CERN) - thanks for making it possible!