What is your earliest Internet memory?

tapu · 01-12-2014, 01:16 PM

When I was an undergraduate at the University of California in the early 80s, I was in a Linguistics class where they gave us what was later called an email address. This worked within the UC computer system and we used it to submit homework, ask the professor questions, and have personal communications (about class-related content/work) with other students in the class.

I remember it seemed almost mystical. The idea of personal computers (Apple was just launching) being able to communicate in a web or network was mind-boggling.

Later on, we learned about its beginnings on "The Well," out of San Francisco, and I time it with the original MacIntosh (?) and the gray scale graphics. Some time later on, I was signing up on BBS's on a rudimentary pc at home, and eventually AOL, which used graphics that were "drawn" with repeated keyboard characters at the time--I kid you not!

I'd love to flesh out this memory with others who were primed at that time to embrace the new technology. I'd also love to hear anyone of any age's story about early internet experiences.

~the tapu

Liam · 01-12-2014, 01:42 PM

My earliest memory of the internet is an auditory one - the boing boing, crackle crackle, swish sound of my modem connecting me to a new world.

tapu · 01-12-2014, 02:05 PM

Oh my god, of course. I can hear it if I just think about it. Can you place it in time, or development? Were you on BBSs before and then on a service like AOL? Do you know anything about The Well?

Liam · 01-12-2014, 04:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tapu

Oh my god, of course. I can hear it if I just think about it. Can you place it in time, or development? Were you on BBSs before and then on a service like AOL? Do you know anything about The Well?

It was 1994, AOL was my service provider. I don't know anything about The Well.

dark_crystal · 01-12-2014, 04:36 PM

Me and two heterosexual couples chatting with randoms over aol at the home of the only one of us who owned a computer

1994

SirLucian · 01-12-2014, 04:39 PM

found the best friends ever...............
Best Loves ever

But it has changed and this make Me very sad

easygoingfemme · 01-12-2014, 04:58 PM

Early 90s in college. Had a professor who was insisting that we all communicate with him via email. Which meant going to a computer lab and getting an account, and so on. So I didn't. And the teacher was frustrated.

Then a different teacher, not my teacher, and someone who I had become good friends with through a writing group, told me about email and took me to the lab to set up an account with me and we both emailed and did some archaic version of instant messaging and I was like, Whoa.

Then said teacher got totally addicted to the wealth of worthless and some worthy information on the internet and spent a couple of months staying up all night at the computer lab printing stacks of paper. Including a list of the 20 most creative ways to fail your finals in college. Which he printed and we ran around campus at 2am tacking up on the walls of big test rooms.

A few years later I was working on my senior thesis and it turned out most of my information (data on violence against women in prison) was available online through underground sources, vs in books or newspapers, and I was one of the first people in my department to turn in a thesis largely sourced from internet research, rather than books. ( I still did good old fashioned letter writing and interviews, but due to the nature of the subject, there was a lot more info online than individuals who wanted to go on the record talking to me)

I didn't know how to copy paste, so I had to hand write out all of the URLs in my notebook and then type them out again on paper to site sources.

I feel very old now.

tapu · 01-12-2014, 05:44 PM

That is fucking excellent!

*Anya* · 01-12-2014, 06:14 PM

My long-term ex and I got our first computer in 1989, it cost a fortune, was very large and I got so excited every day when I dialed up and heard: "You've got mail"!

JustLovelyJenn · 01-12-2014, 06:22 PM

We got our first in home internet connection in my junior year of high school. I used to sneak down to the office at night, wait for the dial-up connection... and chat with folks in Scotland and England on Yahoo! Voice Chat...

Allison W · 01-12-2014, 06:38 PM

I was twelve years old, back in like 1998 or 1999, on AOL. I am glad to have left those days behind.

aishah · 01-17-2014, 06:52 PM

early 90s playing ascii oregon trail on those big boxy computers in second grade at school.

i think we got a computer at home when i was 8 or so (so 1996?) - i remember looking up stuff that i wasn't supposed to (specifically about paganism) and trying to hide it from my mom, hehehehe.

starryeyes · 01-17-2014, 07:47 PM

The grateful dead chat room on AOL.... Probably like 1995??? I was way to young to be in there and there were way too many old creepies but it was fun!!!!

fatallyblonde · 01-17-2014, 08:01 PM

oh man... I do remember the magic of the internet, this whole new world being opened to us... it was so mythical... so bizarre, the concept of it so wild.
It was about 1995... I looked up Who Framed Roger Rabbit, one of my fave ever movies, and came across a fansite... ahhhh the rush of nostalgia!

Orema · 06-24-2014, 08:07 PM

I read a piece on the difference between Jiffy Mix and homemade cornbread on USENET in one of the social culture newsgroups. It was a brilliant and hilarious article. This was before AOL, or blogs, etc. The ISPs were Delphi, Earthlink, Mindspring and some others ... and dial-up modems ruled. USENET was available at most (all?) universities.

ProfPacker · 06-24-2014, 08:23 PM

yes, Earthlink an Prodigy. I had a computer in 1985 but I think my ex and I really connected to the internet via prodigy when she was going to China to adopt our oldest...we were so excited that we could instantly see the weather. By her second trip in 2006 we were skyping

Orema · 06-24-2014, 09:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by femmepacker

yes, Earthlink an Prodigy. I had a computer in 1985 but I think my ex and I really connected to the internet via prodigy when she was going to China to adopt our oldest...we were so excited that we could instantly see the weather. By her second trip in 2006 we were skyping

Yes, I remember Prodigy... and I had an Atari computer in 1985. I got it from Chemical Bank in NYC. They were giving away Atari computers to customers to use their online banking service called "Pronto." Someone gave me a demo in the bank and I signed up.

I was able to connect to some BBS boards, but not the internet in 1985. When I finally did get on in the early 1990s, I needed to know DOS and that wasn't happening. I finally got on the internet in the summer of 1995 using Delphi then I switched to Earthlink and stayed with them for a few years.

stargazingboi · 06-25-2014, 06:52 AM

I remember in the late 80s seeing my first computer in a college accounting class and being shown how to navigate Dos to connect to the email system to submit homework

cricket26 · 06-25-2014, 07:07 AM

i was 30 years old when i got my first home computer which may seem strange to those who have not known life with out a computer...and it is hard to explain how an inatimate object can make your heart race when it says "you've got mail" but looking back...it did...hahahaha

Queenie · 06-25-2014, 10:31 AM

My earliest memory of the Internet was when I was 14 and my father got our first family computer. I remember using it for school reports and looking recipes for cookies. I do kinda miss the sound of dial up tho.

01-12-2014, 01:16 PM	#1
tapu Senior Member How Do You Identify?: Understated butch. Preferred Pronoun?: I Relationship Status: Party of One Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: Maine Posts: 1,654 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 1,324 Thanked 3,112 Times in 1,103 Posts Rep Power: 21474850	What is your earliest Internet memory? When I was an undergraduate at the University of California in the early 80s, I was in a Linguistics class where they gave us what was later called an email address. This worked within the UC computer system and we used it to submit homework, ask the professor questions, and have personal communications (about class-related content/work) with other students in the class. I remember it seemed almost mystical. The idea of personal computers (Apple was just launching) being able to communicate in a web or network was mind-boggling. Later on, we learned about its beginnings on "The Well," out of San Francisco, and I time it with the original MacIntosh (?) and the gray scale graphics. Some time later on, I was signing up on BBS's on a rudimentary pc at home, and eventually AOL, which used graphics that were "drawn" with repeated keyboard characters at the time--I kid you not! I'd love to flesh out this memory with others who were primed at that time to embrace the new technology. I'd also love to hear anyone of any age's story about early internet experiences. ~the tapu

01-12-2014, 01:42 PM	#2
Liam Senior Member How Do You Identify?: Guy Preferred Pronoun?: He, Him, His Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: The Evergreen State Posts: 2,269 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 14,865 Thanked 6,909 Times in 1,862 Posts Rep Power: 21474853	My earliest memory of the internet is an auditory one - the boing boing, crackle crackle, swish sound of my modem connecting me to a new world. __________________ <3 Love is weird.

01-12-2014, 04:36 PM	#5
dark_crystal Infamous Member How Do You Identify?: jenny Preferred Pronoun?: babygirl Relationship Status: First Lady of the United SMH Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Houston, Texas Posts: 5,445 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 1,532 Thanked 26,589 Times in 4,691 Posts Rep Power: 21474856	Me and two heterosexual couples chatting with randoms over aol at the home of the only one of us who owned a computer 1994 __________________

01-12-2014, 04:39 PM	#6
SirLucian Member How Do You Identify?: Revenant I Have Become Indestructible Preferred Pronoun?: Vampir Relationship Status: Ageless One / My Coven, Commanding an Embodied Authority Not Ruled By External Opinions Or Behaviors Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: What Happens at the lake Stays at the lake Posts: 271 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 2,132 Thanked 560 Times in 166 Posts Rep Power: 12820354	Best ever found the best friends ever............... Best Loves ever But it has changed and this make Me very sad __________________ The Animal I am Welcome to My Lair Leave the world at the door There is a certain Darkness here Rock Walls Dripping with anticipation Life is too long to Live alone Family is Everything

01-12-2014, 06:14 PM	#9
Anya Infamous Member How Do You Identify?: Lesbian non-stone femme Preferred Pronoun?: She, her Relationship Status: Committed to being good to myself Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: West Coast Posts: 8,258 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 39,306 Thanked 40,791 Times in 7,290 Posts Rep Power: 21474856	My long-term ex and I got our first computer in 1989, it cost a fortune, was very large and I got so excited every day when I dialed up and heard: "You've got mail"! __________________ ~Anya~ Democracy Dies in Darkness ~Washington Post "...I'm deeply concerned by recently adopted policies which punish children for their parents’ actions ... The thought that any State would seek to deter parents by inflicting such abuse on children is unconscionable." UN Human Rights commissioner

01-12-2014, 02:05 PM	#3
tapu Senior Member How Do You Identify?: Understated butch. Preferred Pronoun?: I Relationship Status: Party of One Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: Maine Posts: 1,654 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 1,324 Thanked 3,112 Times in 1,103 Posts Rep Power: 21474850	Oh my god, of course. I can hear it if I just think about it. Can you place it in time, or development? Were you on BBSs before and then on a service like AOL? Do you know anything about The Well?

01-12-2014, 04:58 PM	#7
easygoingfemme Senior Member How Do You Identify?: Lil' Miss Sassy Pants Preferred Pronoun?: She/her Join Date: Oct 2012 Location: My place by the river Posts: 3,375 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 6,731 Thanked 14,159 Times in 3,019 Posts Rep Power: 21474851	Early 90s in college. Had a professor who was insisting that we all communicate with him via email. Which meant going to a computer lab and getting an account, and so on. So I didn't. And the teacher was frustrated. Then a different teacher, not my teacher, and someone who I had become good friends with through a writing group, told me about email and took me to the lab to set up an account with me and we both emailed and did some archaic version of instant messaging and I was like, Whoa. Then said teacher got totally addicted to the wealth of worthless and some worthy information on the internet and spent a couple of months staying up all night at the computer lab printing stacks of paper. Including a list of the 20 most creative ways to fail your finals in college. Which he printed and we ran around campus at 2am tacking up on the walls of big test rooms. A few years later I was working on my senior thesis and it turned out most of my information (data on violence against women in prison) was available online through underground sources, vs in books or newspapers, and I was one of the first people in my department to turn in a thesis largely sourced from internet research, rather than books. ( I still did good old fashioned letter writing and interviews, but due to the nature of the subject, there was a lot more info online than individuals who wanted to go on the record talking to me) I didn't know how to copy paste, so I had to hand write out all of the URLs in my notebook and then type them out again on paper to site sources. I feel very old now.

01-12-2014, 05:44 PM	#8
tapu Senior Member How Do You Identify?: Understated butch. Preferred Pronoun?: I Relationship Status: Party of One Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: Maine Posts: 1,654 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 1,324 Thanked 3,112 Times in 1,103 Posts Rep Power: 21474850	That is fucking excellent!

01-12-2014, 06:22 PM	#10
JustLovelyJenn Senior Member How Do You Identify?: Femme Preferred Pronoun?: She/her Relationship Status: That's Need to Know Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Aberdeen, WA Posts: 4,478 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 12,464 Thanked 13,995 Times in 3,685 Posts Rep Power: 21474855	We got our first in home internet connection in my junior year of high school. I used to sneak down to the office at night, wait for the dial-up connection... and chat with folks in Scotland and England on Yahoo! Voice Chat... __________________ --Jenn

01-12-2014, 06:38 PM	#11
Allison W Member How Do You Identify?: TG Femme Preferred Pronoun?: She Relationship Status: Loner Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Wisconsin Posts: 366 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 1,414 Thanked 1,198 Times in 320 Posts Rep Power: 12203814	I was twelve years old, back in like 1998 or 1999, on AOL. I am glad to have left those days behind.

01-17-2014, 06:52 PM	#12
aishah Member How Do You Identify?: queer stone femme shark baby girl Preferred Pronoun?: she, her, little one Relationship Status: dating myself. Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: dallas, tx Posts: 1,495 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 13,823 Thanked 6,437 Times in 1,288 Posts Rep Power: 21474850	early 90s playing ascii oregon trail on those big boxy computers in second grade at school. i think we got a computer at home when i was 8 or so (so 1996?) - i remember looking up stuff that i wasn't supposed to (specifically about paganism) and trying to hide it from my mom, hehehehe.

01-17-2014, 07:47 PM	#13
starryeyes Senior Member How Do You Identify?: a round peg in a square hole Preferred Pronoun?: Guess... Relationship Status: Seat taken Join Date: May 2011 Location: Rocky Mountain High Posts: 2,491 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 2,199 Thanked 10,057 Times in 2,078 Posts Rep Power: 21474851	The grateful dead chat room on AOL.... Probably like 1995??? I was way to young to be in there and there were way too many old creepies but it was fun!!!! __________________ "It's ok to make mistakes. It's ok to fall down. Get up! Look sickening....and make them eat it!" - Latrice Royale Starry

01-17-2014, 08:01 PM	#14
fatallyblonde Member How Do You Identify?: lesbian femme Preferred Pronoun?: She/Her Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: earth Posts: 446 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 389 Thanked 769 Times in 181 Posts Rep Power: 7054720	oh man... I do remember the magic of the internet, this whole new world being opened to us... it was so mythical... so bizarre, the concept of it so wild. It was about 1995... I looked up Who Framed Roger Rabbit, one of my fave ever movies, and came across a fansite... ahhhh the rush of nostalgia!

06-24-2014, 08:07 PM	#15
Orema Superlative Soul Sister How Do You Identify?: Lesbian stone femme Preferred Pronoun?: She, her, shawty Relationship Status: Single Join Date: Dec 2013 Location: Cottage of Content Posts: 13,032 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 41,083 Thanked 34,103 Times in 8,595 Posts Rep Power: 21474860	Earliest Internet memory I read a piece on the difference between Jiffy Mix and homemade cornbread on USENET in one of the social culture newsgroups. It was a brilliant and hilarious article. This was before AOL, or blogs, etc. The ISPs were Delphi, Earthlink, Mindspring and some others ... and dial-up modems ruled. USENET was available at most (all?) universities. __________________ Today is a good day to read a banned book. —Anonymous Last edited by Orema; 06-24-2014 at 08:16 PM.

06-24-2014, 08:23 PM	#16
ProfPacker Member How Do You Identify?: butch/MOC Preferred Pronoun?: Hy/hym/hys but in circumstances like work and some other places she Relationship Status: single Join Date: Sep 2013 Location: nj Posts: 1,365 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 7,023 Thanked 4,816 Times in 1,187 Posts Rep Power: 21474848	yes, Earthlink an Prodigy. I had a computer in 1985 but I think my ex and I really connected to the internet via prodigy when she was going to China to adopt our oldest...we were so excited that we could instantly see the weather. By her second trip in 2006 we were skyping

06-25-2014, 06:52 AM	#18
stargazingboi Senior Member How Do You Identify?: ~ Preferred Pronoun?: ~ Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: ~ Posts: 1,954 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 10,392 Thanked 8,321 Times in 1,626 Posts Rep Power: 21474852	I remember in the late 80s seeing my first computer in a college accounting class and being shown how to navigate Dos to connect to the email system to submit homework

06-25-2014, 07:07 AM	#19
cricket26 Senior Member How Do You Identify?: femme Preferred Pronoun?: she Relationship Status: must be love on the brain Join Date: Oct 2012 Location: Texas Posts: 1,582 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 969 Thanked 4,249 Times in 1,297 Posts Rep Power: 21474849	i was 30 years old when i got my first home computer which may seem strange to those who have not known life with out a computer...and it is hard to explain how an inatimate object can make your heart race when it says "you've got mail" but looking back...it did...hahahaha

06-25-2014, 10:31 AM	#20
Queenie Member How Do You Identify?: Queer Preferred Pronoun?: Her Relationship Status: Married Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: East Finchley Posts: 752 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 478 Thanked 1,891 Times in 523 Posts Rep Power: 16307163	My earliest memory of the Internet was when I was 14 and my father got our first family computer. I remember using it for school reports and looking recipes for cookies. I do kinda miss the sound of dial up tho.