Open Thread Update: The First Time Online

Last time we asked everyone to share their very first internet memory in the comments.  Your answers revealed the wonder and almost miraculous possibilities the internet presented for communication and connection.

Like reader Mary Lou:

My son was teaching in Japan. I’ll never forget the thrill of being able to instant message and chat with him on AOL. It was miraculous. Then we figured out how to create a private chat room so my son in San Francisco in college, my son in Japan, and I in LA could chat together in real time. Made me think of mothers in the 18 century who would send their grown children off and get maybe one letter a year, if that.

-Mary Lou

Others recalled the  wonder – and the pain – like Reader Mary Ellen: 

…I remember the first time I saw something animated. It was Charlie Chaplin doing a little dance. I also remember dial-up, but dial-up would hang up AOL when you had an incoming call.

-Mary Ellen

And we’re honored to host someone who was there at the very start! We owe Reader Laurie a debt of gratitude; she was on the team in 1982 that built the pre-internet.  Anyone remember Prodigy? Read her story in the comments!

First Time Online Gems

The stories in the comments run the gamut from “OMG our computer is TALKING to the White House!!” (calm down, Sandee!!) to looking up Quasimodo jokes, (thanks, Eric!)  to how to tame rhubarb (thanks, Patty!) to global connections at a UN conference in China (Reader Judy said “it was like mail time at camp’) to getting medical information and more.

Every comment is a gem, revealing the width, depth and impact of a new technology that changed our lives and the world.  Read them all and add your own!

Original text below:

We are the only generation that knew a time when the internet did not exist. Younger generations can’t even conceive of it.  For us, it was world-shaking that a phone line, a computer and a little CD-like disc could open up the world to us.

My late husband was a programmer, so we were a bit ahead of the curve, but even Michael was blown away by our first time online in the early 90’s. Remember this sound?

When Michael and I first heard that noise, we realized the Internet was a wonderful world full of possibilities – for community, for information, for enlightenment. It was the herald of a Golden Age!

So what was our very first encounter with the internet?

A bulletin board about the Simpsons.

And for the next hour or so, we downloaded a collection of every catchphrase and punchline in the show.  And remember, this was before YouTube (GASP!) so all we had was page after page of “Eat my Shorts” and “Release the Hounds” printed on pink paper on our dot matrix printer. D’Oh!

That was my first contact with the Internet. What was the first thing you did or looked up online? Tell your story in the comments!

Need something to jog your memory? Here’s a collection of sounds familiar to those of us who were online pioneers  – you know, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth.

Virge Randall is Senior Planet’s Managing Editor. She is also a freelance culture reporter who seeks out hidden gems and unsung (or undersung) treasures for Straus Newspapers; her blog “Don’t Get Me Started” puts a quirky new spin on Old School New York City. Send  Open Thread suggestions to editor@seniorplanet.org.