I was on the net in university in 1984, apparently, but I don't remember much about it then - my degree was in English, though many of my friends were early net users. I do remember playing DECWAR rather a lot - one of the first multi-player networked computer games but the Internet wasn't involved in that! I appeared on Usenet intermittently from 1985 to about 1997, but it wasn't long before I discovered that more-or-less gated virtual communities were rather more useful and I have been an active member of several of these, including The Well, where I am now an official 'old timer'.
When I left the University of Toronto, I lost touch with the Internet for a while. But by October 1988, I was back online through CIX, Britain's biggest BBS, then CompuServe, and by April 1994, I was SLIP connected through CityScape (now deceased). Inspired by this, I started the first Internet column in a mainstream British computer magazine (Personal Computer World).
I have had a personal Web page since about mid-'94, and after helping to start one of the UK's (then) top ten sites in October 1995, New Scientist's Planet Science, I went on to work as a Broadcast Journalist in the early days of the BBC's News Online website. I have spent much of the last 15 years writing about the Internet (mostly) for a variety of Internet and print publications, and more recently doing Internet and Digital TV consultancy (here's more about my career). I am currently testing and writing about computer and consumer electronics equipment for Which? (the UK equivalent of Consumer Reports in North America).
Through a fluke I also have been lucky enough to live in one of the areas of the UK covered by British Telecom's test of ADSL, so I have been one of only 2000-odd Britons to have broadband Internet access to their home since February 1999 (though I have since switched to cable modem).