In the not-too-distant past, the Internet was a place, not a state of being. It was a physical portal to a virtual world, and to access it you needed to be at a computer station like the one on my homepage. If you were lucky, you might've had one of these setups at home. If you were even luckier, you had a dial-up modem connected to a landline telephone which meant that you could surf the World Wide Web. I was 13 years old when my family got our first Internet-connected computer - a Dell Dimension 4100 with Windows XP that I've slowly been re-creating.
What is Internet, anyway?
Back in these days, people didn't really live online the way we do now. Wireless networking didn't hit the mainstream until 1999, which meant that to go online you had to be in a physical location like your home, the library, a school, or an internet cafe. People typically logged on to check their email, maybe message some friends on AOL Instant Messenger or in a chat room, look up some information, and make fun websites like this. And then they logged off. When they were offline, they never thought about the internet or what was happening on there.
It wasn't until the introduction of sites like Friendster and MySpace in the early 2000s that people started to actively live online and craft digital identities. Facebook catapulted social networking into the mainstream alongside the introduction of "smart" phones like the T-Mobile Sidekick and BlackBerry, which made the internet mobile. YouTube launched in 2005, the first iPhone in 2007, and Apple's App Store in 2008. By 2010, most people were fully functioning online as a second self and the idea of logging off became obsolete.
I really miss the days of the Internet when it wasn't algorithmically designed to make as much money off of users as possible. I miss when people put things online not for likes or follows, but because they had something they wanted to share with the world. This website is my love letter to the Old Internet, also known as Web 1.0, as well as 90s and Y2K nostalgia. It's a constant work in progress so check back often and please send me a message if you notice something broken or wonky.
Your Autumn Test Results
You are a compassionate, generous person. Your life is about serving and helping others.
When you're happiest, you are outgoing and expressive . You love celebrations, and you enjoy showing off a little.
You tend to be afraid of change. You are never ready for things to be different.
You find hard work to be the most comforting thing in the world. You like the feeling of accomplishing something.
Your ideal day is spontaneous and surprising. You like to play things by ear, and you always end up doing something interesting.
You are very impatient. You spend more time waiting for something than actually enjoying it.
You Are 0% Weird
You're totally, completely normal.
And that's pretty darn weird!
You are a compassionate, generous person. Your life is about serving and helping others.
You're totally, completely normal.
And that's pretty darn weird!