Sarah Samson, 28, is the youngest daughter of Benedick and Maryann Samson.
She is currently enrolled at the University of Missouri-Columba where she
studies Chemistry and looks for a masters program to continue education
beyond her General Studies degree.
She used to commute from Marshall to Columbia every day, but recently she
moved to Columbia. Being in the University's computer labs several times a
week, she got curious about the Internet and World Wide Web as well as she
learned about e-mail. According to her mother she was the leading force in
getting her mother connected to the Internet.
She reads biochemistry newsgroups from Usenet that provide her
with information and discussion of class material and likes to use
the World Wide Web to look for things she wants to know or simply to explore
the new way of free, convenient access to discussion, opinion, entertainment
or background stories all over the world.
Electronic mail is a frequently used means of communication with her
parents. Sarah explains: "My mother knows very well that I check my e-mail
occasionally and if she wants to tell me something she wants me to know
before I'm near my telephone, she accesses RAIN an sends e-mail to the
university."
This kind of communication once gave Sarah the chance to go to a christmas
party in Columbia she would have missed otherwise. She lived at her
parents' farm in Marshall, Missouri then and had to commute to
Columbia, which takes almost an hour by car. Her mother received a call for her
about the party at the night of the same day and sent e-mail about it
to Sarah's university address. She made it to the party.
Besides family and academic communication, Sarah sometimes finds interesting
places for her mother on the World Wide Web. She still has access to the
RAIN system through the university's Internet connection, and sometimes she
logs in there to see who else is there. Occasional conversations with former
highschool teachers, children she used to teach or even her mother are
events that take place when she goes to RAIN. Many individuals in Marshall
have access to this network, and the local highschool is connected as well as the
library and the senior citizen center, so she has a good chance to
meet someone she knows.
She is yet undecided about the benefits of getting into Cyberspace. Sarah
enjoys electronic communication and finding documents on the World Wide
Web, but besides occasional visits in Cyberspace her use of the Internet
is restricted to electronic mail.
