I guess I’m curious about generations (namely GenZ and Alpha) who didn’t live in a pre-Internet time. Like,
- How was the concept first explained to you, or when did it click?
- Do you understand how insane it is to have the aggregate of all human knowledge — the only comparable thing once being a physical library or university — one search away? That it’s absolutely insane you can engage in a real-time conversation with someone on the opposite side of the world? That you can find niche communities in an instant?
- Were your parents super strict about internet usage? How quickly did you find workarounds?
GenX-er here, FWIW. Grew up with an Apple IIc in the 80s then a pc the 90s. the IIc didn’t have internet at first, just games, productivity apps, and programming tools. that was what computers were for. back then. work and a little play.
eventually, we got prodigy for the IIc, and eventually a pc that also had Prodigy (an online service, a precursor to the internet). this was service you dialed into with a modem (screee!) and had services like an online encyclopedia and other information resources, chat rooms, some games, and other stuff to do online. it was pretty amazing for the time. eventually, we got AOL which had a lot more features, better chat rooms and email, and which eventually transitioned to an actual ISP-- then so did my family; transitioned to a local ISP, that is. Although, that was about 1994, and when i went to university a few years later, i had a dedicated T3 line in my dorm.
i was pretty fortunate, as most kids i knew didn’t have a computer at home, let alone an online/internet connection. i stayed up late most nights connected to IRC and screwing around on a lot of usenet news groups. i started learning html and building web pages. i got my hands on a copy of photoshop and immediately knew what i would be doing with the rest of my life. (and have been).
broadband internet soon became accessible to most americans, and the world changed forever. then i discovered mp3s, and the magic of torrenting was invented… the ability to instantly access any information instantly, communicate instantly with anyone, everyone, and the ability to get any media i wanted for free, whenever i wanted it… and to create anything i wanted… what a world!
growing up to see all of that unfold and to be a part of it happening is something i never don’t feel privileged to have been a part of. it was and still is amazing. i believe that the internet is one of humankind’s greatest inventions. not only that, but it’s an ongoing amalgamation of innovations, contributed to by everyone, which continues to evolve, and that makes it all the more amazing.
This was mostly my experience too. I don’t think the Internet itself was as big of a game changer as the advent of smart phones. My day to day didn’t change too much from a pre Internet life to a post Internet life until smart phones came along. Once everyone was able to access the Internet from their pocket is when things really changed.
that was not my experience, as my world completely changed with the internet. smart phones had a massive impact by making it portable, but it wasn’t so huge since i already was using a mobile phone, a pager, and a PalmPilot. a smartphone was just the next logical progression.
However… for “normies”, i absolutely can see it being the inflection point that really made a lot of disparate and difficult-to-access or -use services much more accessible and simple for novice and casual users. broadband mobile service eased that explosion, especially considering that smartphones became most user’s first highspeed computer and broadband connection.