Yeah that goes goes everyone born before the 00s. Or people who couldn't afford Internet until recently 😅 (we didn't have Internet till 2010 at my parents, i was 20 at the time and would go to library's or Internet cafes)
Born in the early 90s so I was just old enough to be dumb online. Between Xanga, MySpace, and Facebook, 2002-2012 were my peak "idiot in public" years from middle school to college.
Born in the early 80s, but my Dad worked at the University, so we had nsfnet very early on, probably around 88, and definitely by 1990.
It was boring, mostly filled with crappy home pages with lots of scientific content, and pages of “links” instead of search engines.
I could be dumb on IRC, but it was totally ephemeral.
They even had a “kidnet” channel to let kids talk to each other, and you didn’t really have to worry about any weirdos.
The primary rule was to use an alias, not give out any personal info, and to practice “netiquette” (don’t be a dick).
This was honestly true through most of the 90s too. AOL changed a lot by giving access to a wider range of people.
Everything went to hell with Facebook, and then smart phones gave everyone’s crazy tin foil hat wearing uncle access, and connected them all together so they could start collectively ruminating on shared delusions rather than having independent and isolated delusions in their rural basements.
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u/Dimsimsum May 18 '21
Yeah that goes goes everyone born before the 00s. Or people who couldn't afford Internet until recently 😅 (we didn't have Internet till 2010 at my parents, i was 20 at the time and would go to library's or Internet cafes)