A Look Back Into Prehistoric Times

I know the Internet was around before 1995, but it still wasn't a household name at that time. Today, you would need to be about forty or more to understand life pre-net.

The reason I chose 1995 as the date is personal. It was the year I discovered the internet. I had never even seen a web browser until that time.

I Walked

It was a summer day, and I decided to walk to my friend's house. He lived about three miles away. I was eighteen; three miles was nothing. We hiked for fun.

When I got there, he and his girlfriend were hanging out, so we all went to chill in his room, and there on his desk was a big IBM computer. I knew he had internet, and I was intrigued.

'Want to try it?'

That question changed my life forever.

'Sure,' I replied. I had no idea what to do. The first thing my friend showed me was how to dial-up. He began by shouting down the hall, 'Gran, I'm gonna use the computer so the phone won't work.'

I don't know if you have ever heard what it sounds like when you pick up a phone while you were online, but it's like what I imagine the sound of machine souls dying might be. Don't believe me? Listen for yourself.

People talk about nails on a chalkboard; this was much worse.

Ahhh, chalkboards, I miss them! When I was in elementary school, we had to dodge the raptors to clean the erasers. Alright, I may not be quite that old, but it's close.

For some insane reason, we would volunteer to do it. We would gather up the erasers from the classrooms and take them outside before beating them together. The key was to make sure you turned your head, held your breath, and closed your eyes before clapping them together.

Otherwise, you would go blind and choke to death. That is not an exaggeration. Once done, you would proudly take them back, covered in chalk dust, and put them all away. Ah, the memories.

My First Computer

It was Windows 95, and I thought I was at the top of the world. The highest speed I could reach was 28.8 bps. It was a vast improvement to the previous 14.4 bps.

It was super fast for me, and it didn't take that long to refresh a chat page. Loading a page only took a minute. It was awesome. Technology has surpassed everything at this point.

ICQ

There was no such thing as Messenger, Snap Chat or Whatsapp.

If you would like to know more about ICQ, check it out here.

Cell Phones? What's that?

I mean, they existed, but I had never met anyone that had one. Now beepers were another story. Everyone knew someone with a beeper. You would text 911 if it were an emergency. However, I can't remember any of the other codes. But I wasn't one of them. I could care less. I hardly used a phone and went to see my friends or vice versa.

Remember, these were the days when you would decide to visit someone and do it-no calling first, making arrangements or checking if they were busy. You would stop by in passing to see if they were home. If they were, you visited.

It may sound scary, but it wasn't. Instead of everyone freezing and panicking about who could be at the door, it was usually a race to see who could get there first.

I didn't get my hands on a mobile phone until 2000. Even then, I tended to forget it, and it was more of a paperweight than anything. My husband was not impressed.

Digital Cameras

Only the rich could afford one of those babies. I had a 110 camera.

That camera went everywhere. I made so many memories with that camera, and the candid shots were amazing. Life was a whole lot less complicated back then. The things we got away with then would sink us today. I thank my lucky stars every day we didn't have social media when I was a teenager.

Life was defiantly different then but never dull!

Well, I hope that you enjoyed my little stroll down memory lane; if you are of the younger generation, I swear this is all true. If you are my generation or older, you know.

Biblio:

1000logos.net. 2021. ICQ logo and symbol, meaning, history, PNG. [online] Available at: <https://1000logos.net/icq-logo/> [Accessed 25 June 2021].