Rev.Raikes
Social Networking & Link-shares
So much of what I do these days centers around the concept of social networking. Blogs (a kind of modern editorial platform), photo & video sharing, text/video/audio chatting, and special-interest member sites all work to remedy the isolation of the modern age to re-align mankind as a social animal; all with the same tools blamed for our isolation.
Where to start
My favorite current tool for managing all of my web resources is a web-browser called Flock, based on the popular Firefox browser. I use it to post to Blogger [blog], Flickr [image-share], Youtube [video-share], Wordpress [blog/website], Tumblr [feed compiler], Del.icio.us [link-share/bookmark host], and on-&-on...all of which are free to join/use and without which my site would be content-light.
Turn the knob to 11
Go to W3Schools and learn CSS at the very least. Even if you don't want to learn HTML and use a program to make a site, CSS (cascading style sheets) can be very useful with many of the above sites. Of course, you can go deep down the rabbit-hole using the tutorials on W3Schools to learn things like PHP, JavaScript, XHTML, and other things in which I merely dabble. If nothing else, get a handle on the terminology.
Why do any of this?
If that is a real question in your mind, you may find yourself left far behind; possibly jobless. I didn't want to know anything about technology years ago. I wouldn't even listen to the radio, let alone watch TV or touch a computer. It became painfully aware that I needed to learn something when I couldn't get work at a cigar shop in Chicago because I didn't know what Windows was.
That may be perfectly fine for many of you out there. I applaud your fortitude in totally dropping out and living completely off of the grid. That's a very big part of life out here where i live, in the Northwest US. But, i try to balance a simplified lifestyle while staying plugged-in. It is possible - I feel I am a good example.