Remembering the Beginning of the Internet

Reading time: 4 – 6 minutes

In viewing this video produced by leapfish, it gives us a good visualization of the evolution of the internet.

I was just thinking of what the internet was like when I was a young child and how it’s completely different than the internet of today. From what I remember – our household got the internet when I was about 9 or 10. (I must have been in 5th grade because I had a massive crush on Jonathan Taylor Thomas as did the rest of the world). The Lion King was out and I had a girl crush on Sandra Bullock after seeing her in the movie Speed. So you can imagine how long ago this was.

At the time, the internet wasn’t like it is now with vector images and flash websites (so you can forget Myspace or Facebook!) It was mostly like an image-less chat forum; one of the really boring kinds with threads after threads of “re:”. You can forget trying to delete anything. It wasn’t pretty but neither were our Windows 3.x desktops.

When I was 12, I started learning HTML and ran a website called “Keroppi’s Corner”. Yes, you know – the Sanrio character? I was 12, mind you. I really do not remember what I even made a website about, but it probably contained the miscellaneous ramblings of a 12 year old. Poetry, gossip, and things like that. My best friend, Laura, ran a website called “Starshine”. Pretty funny our choice of titles, huh?

America Online was the big internet provider at the time and I spent many nights chatting with other Sandra Bullock fans (who I still know, by the way) and racking up time in the Disney chat.  Highlight of my little life was IMing Jonathan Taylor Thomas and *GASP* he talked to me. This was before it was common practice to imitate celebrities on the web. Besides, he had said what his AOL screename was in the magazine Disney Adventures. (Is that magazine still around, by the way?)

Soon after wards, by the time I became a Freshman in high school, it was becoming increasingly popular to have a journal on the internet (although it wasn’t considered a blog as of yet). The big social site we utilized was a site called Open Diary, where everyone who was anyone had an Open Diary. Then the website decided to go from free to pay (who needs that?!) We were high school kids! Livejournal and Xanga were also popular variations of online journaling.

Myspace and Facebook came around a few years later while I was in college and Twitter seems to be something that’s erupted in the past year or so. Social Networking is no longer limited to “Who do you know who knows someone?” But “Who can you search out and find, and get to know yourself?” Thanks to websites such as Twitter, getting to know anyone in the world has become a big possibility!

Like this video from leapfish is showing us, our world (aka The World Wide Web) has drastically changed in the past 15 years – giving us so much more possibilities than we’ve ever thought of. But just how many people are missing out on living the world wide web and taking advantage of all its growing social features?

Where will be be in another 15 years?

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of LeapFish Inc. All opinions are 100% mine.

Tag: LeapFish

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