1994: The Stone Age

"Internet is that [.] massive computer network. ...The one that's becoming so big now."

How long have you been on the Internet?

I got my first AIM screen name (surfergirlie212) in 1997 and I was not alone. My friends all used AIM or AOL Instant Messenger to communicate. It was always easier than tying up my parent’s phone lines with my fourth grade gossip. Nearly 13 years later my addiction to virtual networks is not much better: I woke up this morning and checked my Facebook, Twitter, e-mail, PerezHilton.com and CNN before getting out of bed. I poured a cup of coffee and looked at Superbowl teams...then Tweeted about it. I know this is not uncommon, in fact many of my friends and interviewees do this daily. I have a friend who keeps her smartphone in her hands while she sleeps so she can answer texts, get notifications and reply to e-mails in her sleep. 

In the sixteen years since this video aired the Internet has become socially, linguistically and historically integrated into modern life. I know for a fact that peoples in my age bubble, 18-25, cannot imagine life without the internet. While the great Snowmagedon of 2011 raged across the Midwest my one concern was: “Oh my God, if the power goes out I have to go to Grandma’s. What am I going to do without Wifi?!” Then I remembered I have 3G and all was right with the world. Let me make that more clear, in a blizzard my single concern was my internet access. 

It seems unfathomable that three very intelligent adults did not:

I.               Know what the internet is.

II.             Correctly communicate (what I assume is) an e-mail address

III.           Properly identify the @ symbol, which, in the video, is simply an “A” with a circle around it.

Only three years later I was introduced to chat rooms. One year later, in 1998, You've Got Mail was released, then came MySpace, Friendster (which I was never in to, and honestly don’t know much about) and LiveJournal. Nearly 10 years later Facebook revolutionized the internet and with that came the Social Networking buzz of Twitter, blogging, tagging and all the chaos erupted. All controversy aside this video sums up what a revolution the Internet is, in sixteen years the Internet became tied to a generation; we cannot live without it.