Although I progressed from my childhood into my teens in the 90s, l don’t retain much memory of the internet back then as l had no exposure to it.
Although I progressed from my childhood into my teens in the 90s, l don’t retain much memory of the internet back then as l had no exposure to it.
Man, it was amazing.
The internet was not a utility. It was not a necessity. It was not in 7 billion pockets. It was the refuge of nerds, techheads and the like… a fancy, affordable refuge for the curious and weird.
Exploring websites via webrings, guestbooks, and a literal yellowpage website that listed known websites. Everything felt like an adventure, like you were a brave explorer charting unknown lands. Never getting use to the whimsy and wonder that you discovered around every turn.
And the chatrooms were nothing like they were today. All you knew was their handle/screen name. Social media didnt exist, the ironclad rule of telling no one your name, age, location was in full effect and respected by everyone. So you’d spend all night talking with people from all corners of the globe, on common interests and unique experiences. . laughing with eachother well into the night before you had to log off, on the promise of doing it all over again the next night.
There were no ads, viruses were rare (at least until the later 90s when KaZaA/eMule/etc popped up), the corporate hellscape and consolidation were still too far off to be considered by any but the most paranoid conspiracy theorists… an absolute magical era of time.
Could we recreate something like this ??
You could probably recreate the technology.
but recreating the era? the sense of adventure? you’re never recreating that.
Agreed 👍. But even recreating the technology would be something worth showing to a young person in 2030.