In the video below, John Green talks about how in the early 1990s, his home got internet for the very first time. He shares how it felt and what he thought. He remembers his dad saying, “Look the internet can show you what the weather is like right now in Beijing!”
I don’t remember when my home first got internet because for as long as I can remember, we’ve always had it. Maybe that’s why I find this video interesting. For me, imagining not having internet is like imagining what it would be like to be without running water. Maybe, that’s exaggerating, or maybe I rely too much on the internet, but it has become a necessary utility, if not a vital one. I take for granted that I can check any time what the weather is like in Beijing, or any other place in the world just like I take for granted that I can use running water whenever I need it.
Do you remember when you first got internet? Or did you grow up with it? Share with me in the comments!
Matt Brier says
My first foray into the internet was pre-web and involved connecting to the modem bank at the local university(UofL) and telneting to other university servers to find news groups, MUDs(Multi-user online dungeons, think Zork with WoW multiplayer), MUCKS(advanced themed MUDS), and MUSHES(even more advanced and more community driven). Didn’t cost a dime, just tied up our only phone line much to my parent’s chagrin.
It would be a couple of years before I got to college, another year after that before the college adopted giving out email addresses to all students, and then another year after that before the web became a thing.
Now I feel old.
Blessing says
Yeah, I remember when I first got internet and had to fight with the family when they wanted to use the phone. Those were the dial up internet days.
And, I think like other utilities it should be, in a sense, a human right of sort. This is because those who don’t have it are greatly disadvantaged. I’m thankful for the Internet.
Allison Dye says
“A human right of sort”– yes!