It doesn't feel like the internet has been around for longer than it has. Honestly, this whole day-to-day, sun up/sun down usage of the internet has really only taken foot within the last decade. How do I know this?
Not that long ago there was finite things to do on the internet.
Take a gander at some of the stories told by the grandpappies of the information super highway's heyday and learn what it used to be like to log on.
Reddit user, The_watcher_100, wanted to know what life was like for the stone age internet users when they asked:
"What is something ancient that only an Internet Veteran can remember?"
Right off the bat, some of us will read these stories about how the internet used to be and immediately think, "Oh yeah, we used to hurl those discs at one another in the backyard."
Discs? In The Mail? What?
"Netscape Navigator"
"AOL sending discs through the mail offering 500 hours of free web access"
"Alta Vista"
"Ask Jeeves"
Keithninety
"Fun story, I was the first kid (that I'm aware of) to try getting online. I used the free disc. My parents kept saying, "and you're SURE this is a free service?" "Yes, totally Mom/Dad. Look, here's the paperwork!""
"The problem was that I was in a small mountain town and the closest AOL connection was about 300 miles away. So I racked up like 120 hours of long distance telephone calls at a time when long distance telephone was NOT cheap. It was something ridiculous like $600 in early 90s dollars. I very much got in trouble."
MrMartyJones
Days Gone By
"not HAVING internet and playing Minesweeper, Solitaire, and Pinball instead."
morenitababy
"Roller Coaster Tycoon"
nessao616
"The trip from no internet to pinball was muscle memory for me... and we didn't have internet a lot because mum had to use the phone"
inbedwithbooks
Edgy 6th Grade Content
"When it was called the 'information superhighway'"
attictapes
"In sixth grade I wrote an article for the school newspaper contending that it should be called the "information toll road" since it cost $10 a month for 5 hours of use."
mfrizz
Wait...Wait For It...Just Wait...
" Weird little squares with blue and red on them that would sort of take the place of graphics until the graphics would actually load. The text would be visible but the graphics wouldn't be there yet."
hellogriff
We don't remember the internet being as bad as it used to be. Nowadays, anything and everything we ever needed was within our grasp, but before? Not so much.
Have To Make It Past The Awful Formatting
"Printing out pages and pages of cheat codes for games."
VastNewt
"Man when I was a kid and would go to the grocery store with my parents I would take a pen and paper and copy the codes out of the gaming magazines! Used to have all the cheat codes for GTA 3 that worked for Vice City and San Andreas"
celesticaxxz
Way To Trick Friends In Class
"The .com version of a .org/.gov site being porn."
VapityFair
"Whitehouse.com. ah the good ole days of convincing kids in computer class to look up something about the president."
Oh, I've Checked All My Websites. I'm Done For The Day.
"Actually running out of Pages on the internet to look at."
FighterWoman
"You could always use the Stumbleupon toolbar in internet explorer to go to a new site."
_harro_
"Oh man! You reminded me of StumbleUpon. It was the original "content finder" for me. Replaced by Digg. Replaced by Reddit."
mysixthredditaccount
The times are changing.
For the better. No one ever needs to go back to yelling at your sister to get off the phone because you've spent the last two hours downloading one song.
Ads! As Far As The Ads Can Go!
"Readable Newspaper homepages"
Karakoima
"seriously, what happened with them? news sites are always so messy"
CinnamonArmin
"Advertisements. It’s all about advertisements."
Kachi3
The Things We Used To Scream At One Another
"using the internet or the phone not both"
Myrko6902
“GET OFF THE PHONE IM TRYING TO USE THE INTERNET” simpler times"
mymindisanenigma420
"GET OFF THE INTERNET I NEED TO MAKE A CALL" -my mom, constantly"
xx2983xx
Everyone Had To Understand The Backend
"Making webpages using simple html"
HeyHx2
"I was talking about this with my 17 yr old & her friends because they were asking how I have the computer literacy I do. I had to explain that social media as it is today didn't exist. If you wanted a place where people could find you, you had to teach yourself html & build a webpage. Then when MySpace showed up, most (if not all) editing had to be done in html. There weren't simplified websites or apps to edit photos either."
"They were amazed & the most impressed with me I've ever seen them be. I felt like a elder sharing my wisdom with the village... at 36 yrs old."
OpossumJesusHasRisen
Maybe we should be a little more grateful the internet is the way it is now. Reminiscing about how things is super sad.
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again.
