The first time I ever used the internet was at a computer class back in the fall of 1996. This was when it was starting to reach the mainstream and it was all very fascinating. Not that I did anything interesting with this new technology though. The teacher for computer class was really a home and consumer science (I think that’s what the subject is called, it’s the class where you mainly cook) teacher who knew nothing about computers. She taught us how to create a Hotmail, search for things on Altavista and how to use chat rooms. That meant that computer class mostly was spent chatting with random guys in the Aftonbladet.se chat. Chat rooms were very different back then. Now I’d never set my virtual foot in the Aftonbladet chat because for the past ten years or so it’s mainly been a place where people hook up for cyber sex. It wasn’t like that in 1996 though. During all those hours I spent there as a kid I never saw anything inappropriate. Weird to think of isn’t it?
For two years I only used the internet in school but then in the fall of 1998 this new technology finally made it to my home. My dad bought a new computer (A modern one with Windows 1998, WHOA!) and connected it to the internet. Oh the arguments we had over this wonderful thing. Because back then we used a 56K dial up phone modem which made surfing a lot rather expensive. I ended up being allowed to use the internet one hour a day but of course I broke that rule frequently. Problem was connecting to the internet without anyone noticing was rather tricky back then. First of all while online the phone didn’t work, a rather obvious giveaway that something wasn’t right. Then there was the noise… You must remember the god awful noise those old modems made while connecting. With that sound ringing through the house the only time breaking the one hour a day rule was possible was when my parents weren’t at home or while they were sleeping. Of course my dad figured out that I did just that so he started removing the wire to the modem and hid it. I remember one time when my family was away for the night and I was looking forward to surfing for hours, only to discover that the wire to the modem was nowhere to be seen! The disappointment! Of course the times I did manage to break the one hour rule it was always discovered in the end anyway, because of a ever higher phone bill.
When we got a faster and cheaper internet (yay broadband) there was another problem. We still had a computer from 1998 with Windows 1998 and a total hard drive space of 24 GB. Originally the computer had only one hard drive of 4 GB but we bought another one after a couple of years. Imagine six people using a computer with a total hard drive space of 24 GB. We weren’t allowed to download anything. Partly because of the lack of space and partly because my parents thought everything contained viruses back then. Of course we (mostly me) did anyway. Not that downloading a few songs mattered really because that computer filled up very quickly just because we were so many people using it. A few weeks after reformatting it, it was back to taking a good five minutes to start. Another problem was that using more than two programs at a time often made it crash from working over it’s capacity. Now imagine that’s the computer I used and shared with five other people (oh my, the fights over computer time we’ve had through the years!) until early 2005 when I bought my first very own computer. My family held on to the one they bought in 1998 until 2008. By then I referred to it as the “stone age machine”.
So guys, when did you first use the internet? Got any interesting anecdotes of the early days of the online world?
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My very first use of the internet was when I was 14 at my friend’s house. We pretended to be a tall beautiful red-haired woman who was 24 and loved to swing dance, and go talk to the guys in the chat rooms (who were probably also lying about who they were).
I didn’t get internet in my own house until a year later. My family didn’t even have a computer until then. But yeah, I’m glad we don’t have to hear that dial up noise anymore. A lot changes in 10 years…
Oh the nostalgia! Reading this brings back so many memories. It’s amazing though that you and your family managed to share a computer between the six of you for so many years! And naughty girl, sneaking online when your parents weren’t home! Tsk tsk.
I had to LOL at your parents and their “stone age machine” though: my dad was exactly the same with his computer! It wasn’t until 2003 that we finally got him to replace the computer he bought in 1992. It’s on display now at the state museum. (Ok, I lie, but it would be such an antique by now that it should be!)
Hmm…my first internet experience? I think it was about 1997 and it was at my mum’s office. The first website I became interested in was called Purple Moon, which was a sort of cross between a pen-pal site and a trading card game. You’d send virtual postcards to people and trade various “treasures” like gemstones, animals, flowers…whatever. I still remember my username was rebelyeller, haha. We got the internet at home in 1998 with a 33.6K dial-up modem and that summer I spent about 10 hours per day online, just reading things, playing games and chatting on mIRC (remember that?). Our internet service used to charge per hour back then too, so the bills were always exorbitant, but usually the trouble I got in over that was overshadowed by the trouble I got into for calling 1800 numbers at $4.95/minute. My 12-year-old self used to call the psychic network for a tarot card reading every morning before school just so that I could try to prove the predictions wrong. No wonder my parents would sometimes jokingly offer me up for adoption to their friends.
Oh man, this makes me nostalgic! I remember the first time I used the Internet was when I was a high school freshman, around 13 years old and in late 2003 I guess. The only websites I knew were Friendster, Mugglenet, Yahoo, and Youtube. I didn’t even know how to watch videos or make an email acct and I gave those tasks to my dear old buddy lol.
These days.. I find it a little funny that, while our generation learned about using the internet probably in our teen years upward, little kids these days already have Facebooks and Myspaces. Five year old kids, seven year olds.. and some of them even have BLOGS
It amazes me how the younger generations are laying their hands on this kind of stuff at an early age. :o
My parents bought our first computer back when I was fourteen. I’m not twenty five. So, that was quite a while ago. That machine was literally a hunk of junk and was extremely slow to begin with. I used it mainly for chat rooms and my older brother would sneak onto to it in the middle of the night to look at porn.
I wound up getting a new computer probably two years after that and my brother’s porn obsession killed that one too. When I was fifteen I met my now fiance through a random instant message. We’ve been together for over ten years now. And I obviously have a newer, better computer too. Oh and a baby. lol Although why I decided to throw that into my comment I really can’t explain. 
My first use was in the library, when I first got a computer in 1998 I loved it. AOL chatrooms were a lot different back then too, the whole internet was, it was a lot more innocent. I sometimes wish we could go back to those more innocent times online, but with high speed internet.
1996 was different from what it is now.. :-( chat room is no good now.. I first used internet in year 2000.. lol i know right?! kinda like a late bloomer or any of that sort.. in school, during 1998 or before 2000 we werent allowed to use the internet.. just some crappy windows apps and games.. haha so yeah. I havent seen anything unappropriate unlike nowadays where porn sites are everywhere.. lol
surprisingly I started on the internet in 2005, my senior year in high school. I had a technology class and was hooked since. My friend ariana and I discovered chatrooms that same year and that’s where she met her first boyfriend (he lived in florida and was 15 and she lived in new york and was 17 going on 18) whom which she ran away with. Oh, internet *sigh* lol
Oh wow…I honestly do not remember the first time that I got on the Internet. I do remember that my best friend was the one who introduced me, and that I created my first email account not long after. But other than that I am drawing a complete blank. I know that we got Internet at home in about 1995 or 1996, because my Mom felt that I needed it for school. I spent a lot of time on Teen OpenDiary…and downloaded things for The Sims.
I remember learning to type on a computer sometime around the third grade-ish which was wayyyy back in 1994. They covered our hands up with paper so that we couldn’t see the keys and taught us home row, etc.
We bought our first computer around 1993 and it was this huge hunk of a Hewlett Packard. We got dial up shortly after that but because we lived so far out in the middle of nowhere at this time, the charges were insane and my parents eventually canceled it until the magical broadband fairy came and blessed us with cheap internet.
I remember my favorite websites were bolt.com, myspace’s big sister and some site for the book series the Animorphs.
Good times.