Meet Up: Use The Internet To Get Off The Internet

I’ve been looking for a soccer game lately.  I used to play every Friday night at my old place of work, but since I switched jobs, I haven’t played in a regular game.  I tried to look online and see what was available but couldn’t find anything in my area.  I pretty much gave up on it when I accidentally stumbled on a site called Meet Up with an interesting slogan of “use the internet to get off the internet.”  I played around with the site a bit and I have to say, I’m impressed!

Meet up runs along a basic idea, providing people with a shared interest a place to discuss and set up times during which they can meet offline, hence the tag line.  Like many other internet sites, it’s a simple idea but quite useful.  What is the internet after all if not a communication tool?  A place to meet others who have similar interests to you?  Meet up takes this and moves it one step further.  It’s a place for you to meet people with similar interests and then go meet them off line to enjoy those interests.

Health Connection

So what does this have to do with health?  Well, I entered in my zip code to see how many meet up groups were in my area.  The answer, 806.  Great, but what about fitness related ones?  Out of those, 67 dealth with health & support and another 62 were about sports & recreation.  I found hiking clubs, yoga groups, a morning tai chi group and yes, even a soccer meet up.  To me, this is what the internet is all about.  It provides you with a place to find people and information you would not have had access to before, and then enables you to use that information in your off line life.

So go ahead and try meetup.com.  Who knows what fun groups are in your area.  And if you can’t find a group you’re interested in, why not start one and see who joins?

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And yes, I did eat a bit too much yesterday.