Category: Internet

Posted on

When the Internet Felt More Human Than It Does Today

There’s a quiet feeling many people seem to share lately, even if they don’t quite say it out loud. The internet still works, technically. Pages load. Feeds refresh. Messages arrive. And yet, something about it feels thinner than it used to. Conversations blur together. Comments repeat themselves. Search results circle the same handful of articles, … Continue reading When the Internet Felt More Human Than It Does Today

Posted on

People Confess What Their Generation Experienced That Kids Today Will Never Understand

Nostalgia can be a powerful thing.

Have you looked at any of the movies to come out in the last year or so?

While nostalgia can be a fun trip to go on—letting you live in the past and feel like you did when you were younger, the lights were brighter and the sugar didn’t quite hurt your teeth as much—it can be damaging to the present. If your eyes are on the past, you’re not looking at the now.

That being said, there is a strange idea that what you went through in your youth might never be replicated now. After all, life goes on, and we’re never going back to dial-up internet service.

Thank goodness.

Reddit user, incrementaler, wanted to know what some kids might have missed out on when they asked:

“What is something your generation got to experience that no other generation will be able to experience?”

Never Forget

“Going up in the cockpit to meet the pilots. Thanks terrorist, ruined it for everyone.” ~ paksman

“You’re right. In flight it’s a no-go for the vast majority of airlines that all fall under certain TSA regulations.”

“However it’s no problem while boarding, unless we are busy with something. Just tell the flight attendants right when you step on that you’d like to say hello to the pilots, or that your kid would.”

“The flight attendant will check with us really quick then let you come say hello. Usually it’s children and they get pictures etc…, but I’ve also had the occasional nervous passenger or curious individual.” ~ duprass

Pics, Or It Didn’t Happen

“If something bad happened to you, there was no video of it.” ~RoriksteadResident

“We would have absolutely ended up in jail had there been smartphones & social media when I was in high school.” ~ Jealous-Network-8852

“When good moments would become memories, instead of desperate attempts to whip out your phone and document every moment” ~ Guava_

What Are You Up To?

“Walking over to a friend’s house because of boredom and knocking on the door. Them coming to the door to see who is knocking and discovering it’s a friend who dropped by unannounced and being happy.” ~ LurkJerk55

Let’s Go To The Mall, Everybody!

“Malls being the town hub. They were always really crowded.” ~ Ohsoeasy

“I remember going up to the mall to ‘hang out’ in high school. Friday nights the mall was packed with teenagers walking around, hanging at the food court, smoking ciggs out the main entrance, skateboarders out back.”

“Today’s kids buy everything online. Totally different world.” ~ PrincessPeach1229

Pay To Win

“Video games that required cheat codes rather than credit cards to unlock features.” ~ Leesider1

“I remember when my mom figured out from a magazine we got at the library that you could cheat code Bill Clinton into NBA Jam on SNES. How 90s is that?” ~ iStealyournewspapers

Is It Clear?

“Changing the channel on the TV and having to go outside and turn the antenna until my older sister yelled ‘OK!’.” ~ NagromTrebloc

No Winging It On Hangs

“Having to schedule things with your friends that either A, was well planned out in advance with very agreed upon meeting times, or B, waiting around the house to get a phone to call to set up the aforementioned plans.”

“Also knowing all of your friends and family phone numbers in your head so you could call from pay phones” ~ febreeze_it_away

But Not Streaming. Imagine That.

“Not that big of a deal but I got to go home from school knowing there would be new episodes of Are You Afraid of the Dark, Ahhh Real Monsters, Rockos Modern Life, Ren and Stimpy, Cow and Chicken, TMNT, Mighty Max, Street Sharks, Kenan and Kel, All That, Angry Beavers…” ~ SimpinOnGinandJuice

Seriously. This Was A Thing.

“Porn mags hidden in the forest” ~ blindsniperx

“We were on a weekend Scouting trip and were hiking uphill on a paved road. We were fortunate that the Scoutmaster was up ahead and out of sight because I spotted something over the hill behind a tree.”

“We went down to check it out and discovered porn and pints of Iron City beer. Some of us ended up having an especially fun time that weekend. I suppose that we violated several tenants of The Scout Law.” ~ NagromTrebloc

To See It Evolve From Both Sides

“Being a kid and a teenager without social media.” ~  paksman

“I’ll add too growing up along with the internet evolving. When I was a kid there was no social media and basically no internet.”

“Around my late middle school/early high school years AOL became a thing. So we experienced the anonymous internet.”

“Everything was through user names. You connected with people on themed message boards.”

“Then came the personal but still a little anonymous part. Programs that let you connect with people you know but still in a semi private way. Things like ICQ, AIM, Xanga, LiveJournal, etc…”

“About halfway through high school came the first modern social media: MySpace. Learned a lot about connecting with people, music, etc…”

“It was opening the door to internet that was connected to your actual person. And all the top 8 drama that went with it.”

“When I went to college my first semester I couldn’t get on Facebook because my college had not registered with them yet. Spring semester they had.”

“It was a great way to connect with others in my college and stay in touch with friends at other schools.”

“Then we got to watch it all grow and become more sinister and become the influencer culture with instagram and tiktok. Also all the data collection and lack of privacy that seems unimaginable when I think of the early days of anonymity.”

“It seriously feels like I grew up along with the internet and got to go through all its phases too.”

“It’s been a unique perspective being on both sides of the internet revolution.” ~ dont_blink_angels

The old days might have been fun, but they’re gone.

Don’t forget to love and live in the present.

You might find it’s just as good as things used to be.

Posted on

People Describe What They Actually Used Their Personal Computer For In The 1980s

During the Super Bowl of 1984, Apple debut a commercial inspired by George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984. The commercial was announcing the release of their first personal computer called the Macintosh.

But was the computer actually used to keep “Big Brother” and the threat of totalitarianism at bay like the commercial said it would?

We went to AskReddit to find out what people were actually using their new computers for in the mid 80s.

Redditor incrementaler asked:

“People that had a personal computer in 1984, what did you actually use it for?”

Here’s a list that’s sure to spark some nostalgia.

The games.

“Lode Runner.” – John-Musacha

“And Wizardry!” – OneSidedDice

“And Archon.” – hossbeast

“I’m actually trying right now to get Lode Runner to work in my PC emulator I’ve been writing….” – valeyard89

“I remember a good friend of mine introducing me to that game. I can’t recall how many levels there were, but I think we made it in to the 120’s? We would challenge each other by making our own maps. That was a great game!” – MickeyRipple

“My father has a Mac SE with a Rodine hard drive that still works and plays lode runner (as long as you have the license disk!)” – stevebri

“Hunt the Wumpus.” – fireshitup

“Adventure international expanded on that if I remember correctly…” – Eticket9

Zork.

“Got my first computer in 1983. A Commodore 64 with a 1541 disk drive and a dot matrix printer. I used it for homework (writing papers), but mostly for games. First game I ever played was Zork and the second was a game called Blue Max. (flying/shooting game)”

“By 1984, I also had a 300 baud modem and went online, calling BBSs and joining Q-Link in 1985. Q-Link would, in 1989, become America Online. But, it was mostly BBSs, because Q-Link cost money and the BBSs were free.” – BranWafr

“Zork is a text adventure, something that would’ve probably cost around $40. The computer itself was $595 at launch, but various retailers have cut the price down to around $99 in the 1990s.”

“You’ll also need a disk drive, which costs around $400 for a 1541 disk drive. The price would be just a little over a thousand dollars, at $1035. You would also want a display device, but normally you can use your home TV if it has an RF or composite output.” – pixdoet

“I loved Blue Max…that was a great game! I typed in SpeedScript from Compute’s Gazette magazine and used that word processor through high school and my first year of college.” – sdtopensied

“I remember seeing commercials for something I think it was called prodigy.” – Jolly-Idea-5079

“At the time the big, national online services were Q-Link, Compuserve, and Prodigy.”

“Soon after there was also GEnie, which I joined and where I discovered Babylon 5 since Joe Straczynski was a GEnie member and was talking about the show as he created it and filmed the pilot. That was a lot of fun…” – BranWafr

The bulletin boards.

“Games, using bulletin boards.” – SlimChiply

“That’s about all there was then. Oh, and learning how to write code.” – jcpmojo

Writing you own software package.

“Games mostly. But I also wrote a bowling league software package my dad used for around 8 years! Trs-80, Coco 3, Commodore 64.” – hagemeyp

“Yeah, I had my trash-80 as well. But it was a real computer. Originally has a cassette device for loading and saving software and ultimately hit a disk drive.” – Stay-Thirsty

“I had Trash 80s at school and a C64 at home. And my friend had an Apple IIe. I got to cover all the bases.” – BranWafr

Learning to code.

“Learning to code in good ole BASIC. Playing games that you typed in from the back page of a magazine.” – xilog

“Spending hours typing them in, only to have it crash, then spending another hour going through line-by-line and finally finding one misplaced comma.”

“Of course, that’s assuming the programs worked in the first place. More than a few had typos, and those were the worst. Especially since the code normally wasn’t commented, which is a terrible practice to teach kids.” – APeacefulWarrior

“I had a commodore 64. I used it to print basic word documents that looked like a typed page and spent hours typing in program code from a book so I could see 3 balloons float across the screen in different directions.” – Dapper-Dance5549

“I remember when I was a little kid hearing stories of my grandpa spending loteral hours and hours typing a code just for a ‘song’ to play like 5 notes on repeat.”

“It was beeps also. Not atcual music like today. Sounded like those old Nokia ring tones. But just 5 beeps of a different pitch.” – TaintedTruth222

Homework.

“I was in college and set up a Radio Shack TRS80 with a dial-up modem that connected to the University mainframe. While other kids were stuck in the computer lab (think rows of dumb terminals) late into the night, I sat in my apartment and did assignments any time I wanted.”

“Game changer.” – dartdoug

“Games, typing essays for school.”

“My teachers hated my dot matrix printer.” – I_only_eat_triangles

Definitely not that.

“Not porn.” – TheFutureIsAlmostNow

“No back then it was a tape.” – Jolly-Idea-5079

“You didn’t have copy of Strip Poker by Artworx?” – Amiiboid

“I also didn’t wait for it to download line by painstaking line.” – theriveryeti

An oversized calculator.

“Tried to calculate 2+2. Somehow, I got a 5 as a result.” – EarlyGalaxy

“I had one at work as a process engineer for an electronic component manufacturer. On Lotus 1-2-3 (spreadsheet), I had to set calculations to manual mode from automatic. It would keep the machine from getting paralyzed after each keystroke.”

“I was tasked with getting an ultrasonic scanner mated to a fancy new x286 computer To replace our 1960s vintage analog scanner. What junk.”

“Way too much data for it to work. The cutting edge in computers was pretty blunt.” – Apical-Meristem

Writing letters.

“I received a Commodore VIC-20 as a birthday gift in 1984. It didn’t even run on floppy disks; it had a cassette drive.”

“I used it to play Hangman and Galaxian and a couple other crappy games.”

“I could also write letters and print them out on the archaic dot-matrix printer. One page took about five minutes to print.” – filthy_lucre

“Making greeting cards and posters.” – throwawayb122019

Union work.

“Xerox that ran CP-M. Had a really primitive spreadsheet program we used to keep track of union membership, dues, and print mailing labels. Still have it. Still works. Including the printer.” – ccie6861

“That’s funny. If you buy a printer today it will not last long.” – Jolly-Idea-5079

There wasn’t a lot people could do back then, because the technology was so new.

Games were still incredibly huge back then, but the internet hadn’t really started to get even close to what we know it to be today.

So much has changed in the past few decades.

It’s incredible to think we only used computers for coding, games and essays. Now, we hold them in the palm of our hand.