Life before the Internet

*Prowler* · 09-05-2021, 06:10 PM

Do you remember it?

I was born in 1990, yet I do remember a time where I didn't have Internet at home. I didn't begin using the Internet until the year of 2000.

Basically, I entertained myself watching cartoons, reading comics, playing video games and playing with toys. Our first computer didn't have Internet, so I only used it to mess around in Paint and play Minesweeper and Solitaire occasionally.

I'm sure those of you who were teenagers or already adults before the Internet was standard will have more interesting stories to tell. I'm guessing you looked for jobs in the newspapers, and had to write letters to people who lived far away from you.

I remember checking teletext on TV whenever I wanted to see the loves ores of football matches or if we needed to go to the pharmacy past dinner time and wanted to know which ones were open 24 hours.

Life before the Internet wasn't bad at all. Not saying I'd like to go back to it, but it's not like we had nothing to do. Can't miss what toy don't have. If anything, discovering new things was more exciting. Then again, I was a kid. Ofc I'd like back to those times in rose tinted glasses.

What about you?

*TigerClaw* · 09-05-2021, 06:18 PM

I was born in 1973, So I was around when there was no internet, To get the latest info on things such as video games or movies, you had to pick up a magazine.

*Prowler* · 09-05-2021, 06:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TigerClaw

I was born in 1973, So I was around when there was no internet, To get the latest info on things such as video games or movies, you had to pick up a magazine.

Ah video game magazines. We still have a big collection of those from the 90s. They put so much effort into them. And there was also the strategy guides.

Game magazines were still rather popular in the early 2000s, but began losing steam by the middle of that decade. By then, it was just more practical to get info about upcoming games online.

*IndigoErth* · 09-05-2021, 06:26 PM

Safe to say that a lot of us would be old enough to remember. I suppose my family got it around the time when many people were, but I was in high school by that time.

Back then, just the usual stuff kids entertained themselves with. A family friend (mom's childhood friend's daughter) and I used to write once in a whle, then eventually moved to email.

Before the internet our computer was just for writing up school papers and whatnot. Though my initial introduction to something that at least looked like a computer was the old Texas Instruments TI-99/4A and our handful of games we had for it. Loved good old "Face Maker" and others. edit: Car Wars and Number Magic... found two more we had.

*The Deadman* · 09-05-2021, 06:32 PM

Oh god, Cubed is going to LOVE this thread. You just opened pandora's box.

*Prowler* · 09-05-2021, 06:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by IndigoErth

Safe to say that a lot of us would be old enough to remember. I suppose my family got it around the time when many people were, but I was in high school by that time.

Back then, just the usual stuff kids entertained themselves with. A family friend (mom's childhood friend's daughter) and I used to write once in a whle, then eventually moved to email.

Before the internet our computer was just for writing up school papers and whatnot. Though my initial introduction to something that at least looked like a computer was the old Texas Instruments TI-99/4A and our handful of games we had for it. Loved good old "Face Maker" and others.

Oh yeah, that happened sometimes but being assigned homework that required us to use a computer and print on a sheet of paper was more of an exception to the rule. It mostly consisted of textbook exercises or exercise sheets teachers gave us. This was between 1st and 4th grade, mind you.

We got our first computer because my mother was a teacher and could use one to make her tests at home instead of using a typewriter or something lol

And you had to watch the news at dinner time to know what was going on and to read newspapers regularly as well. But news were more straight to the point and less sensationalist. After all, without Internet there were no news online. And even in the early years of it, the Internet really wasn't used by newspapers and channels. Or if it was, it was just to share today's newspaper cover and a couple of major headlines.

We had less access to information but it was also harder to spread misinformation.

*sdp* · 09-05-2021, 06:36 PM

I've had the internet all my life, i don't understand why so many boomers and millennials think zoomers are the first generation with it. Only poor people didn't have internet in the 90s.

*Prowler* · 09-05-2021, 06:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sdp

I've had the internet all my life, i don't understand why so many boomers and millennials think zoomers are the first generation with it. Only poor people didn't have internet in the 90s.

My family was middle class and we didn't get Internet until 2000. Don't make absurd assumptions about other people's financial situations. I'm guessing my parents simply didn't think it was worth the investment to get it before that. It's not like they needed it for their job, and it's not like my 6 year old self needed it either.

We had dialup at first but quickly switched to broadband and the difference was night and day. We switched to broadband before most people had it.

*The Deadman* · 09-05-2021, 06:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sdp

I've had the internet all my life, i don't understand why so many boomers and millennials think zoomers are the first generation with it. Only poor people didn't have internet in the 90s.

lol the internet was very limited in the 90s. There was no point in having it at the time.

*Prowler* · 09-05-2021, 06:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Deadman

Oh god, Cubed is going to LOVE this thread. You just opened pandora's box.

To be fair, every thread in these forums runs that risk.

*MrPliggins* · 09-05-2021, 06:53 PM

Born in '78. Before the internet, I'd play basketball, hang out with my cousin, mom would drop us off at the arcade, mall, or movie theater. I'd collect trading cards (sports and non), comics, Garbage Pail Kids, toys like TMNT, Ghostbusters, Food Fighters, He-Man, Starting Lineup. Watch cartoons religiously like TMNT, Gumby, Mario. I was glued to the tv on Saturday mornings. I had a drawing desk and drew TMNT and superhero art pretty often. Read Nintendo Power and Wizard magazine for my video game and comics news.

We got our first computer in 1994. The internet was much different than today. AOL, instant message, chat rooms, newsgroups, mailing lists, busy signals, and hourly rates. Played games in DOS, and no online co-op. Wolfenstein 3d blew my mind.

*Prowler* · 09-05-2021, 07:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Deadman

lol the internet was very limited in the 90s. There was no point in having it at the time.

Yes, only a minority of people had Internet at home at the time.

He just likes being a contrarian troll.

*sdp* · 09-05-2021, 07:29 PM

Clearly I'm exaggerating a bit, but not much, by the late 90s i feel like most people had the internet even if they didn't login every day.
My dad was a computer engineer for a swedish company so I always had a bunch of computers in my house and a faster connection than average so yeah i was privileged to always have internet but come on by the late 90s most people used the internet even if they had to go to an internet cafe.
As a little kid the internet was not as appealing since images were very rare and video next to impossible to watch. Some of my first memories were trying to see trailers for the Nintendo 64 before it came out. By 1997 the internet had improved s whole lot and i frequented almost every day.

*Prowler* · 09-05-2021, 07:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sdp

Clearly I'm exaggerating a bit, but not much, by the late 90s i feel like most people had the internet even if they didn't login every day.
My dad was a computer engineer for a swedish company so I always had a bunch of computers in my house and a faster connection than average so yeah i was privileged to always have internet but come on by the late 90s most people used the internet even if they had to go to an internet cafe.
As a little kid the internet was not as appealing since images were very rare and video next to impossible to watch. Some of my first memories were trying to see trailers for the Nintendo 64 before it came out. By 1997 the internet had improved s whole lot and i frequented almost every day.

Going to an Internet cafe or using it at school is different than having access to it from home.

My older brother was already using the Internet in the alte 90s at places similar to Internet cafés. But we didn't get Internet at home until the year of 2000. Also, my mother has never been a person who is very in touch with technology or understands it well. She's a teacher after all. Don't you remember all the middle aged female teachers you had? They ALWAYS had to ask the students to help turn on the projector, VHS or DVD Player. They're the kind of people who are afraid pressing the wrong key will make the device explode.

And yet some people in USA suggest American schools start arming teachers

*CyberCubed* · 09-05-2021, 07:48 PM

I started using the internet around 1997, as that's when IGN as a site started and ninjaturtles.com existed, my first two websites.

Prior to that I just watched cartoons, played with my TMNT action figures, and had Nintendo Power for upcoming games. I was born in the mid-80's so I'm technically a 90's kid, and as a kid in the 90's I didn't need the internet until I started becoming a teen.

~~mrmaczaps~~ · 09-05-2021, 08:18 PM

I didn't have the internet until 2000/2001. We had dial up. Then before college in 01, I had to get the internet for school work. It was expensive & quite useless at first. The internet was used to pop online, look something up & then get back to the real world. Lower middle class, if middle at all... First pc was a tandy 1000 from radio shack. I excelled at computer classes in middle school in 1995/96ish though, but that wasn't internet connected I don't think. My first laptop was like $2000 bucks. I mostly used it to chat with my friends on AIM or similar programs. Never was much of a gamer. Used SupermanHomepage to look at comics reviews of what I was reading for comics. Still don't stay tied to tech... lol. Even leave home without my phone from time to time.

*Coola Yagami* · 09-05-2021, 10:08 PM

The one thing I don't remember is what I used to entertain myself before the ninja turtles. I didn't really get into comics until the first Keaton Batman movie came out. After seeing West and Keaton I decided to grab the comics to find out what the 'real' Batman was like.

Videogame were also a gamble. You had to either buy Gamepro for reviews, rent them if you lived near a rental store or take a leap of faith and buy them. That's why I resonate so much with the AVGN, because back in the day there were a lot of ****** games that only got by on whatever license they were using.

I think I got the internet around 1999, so I remember the whole big fear of Y2K. Even my day was like 'I don't see the big deal, even if all the clocks only show '00', no one is going to believe we're in 1900 or 1800 or whatever, obviously we'd be in the year 2000'.

Funny story. I ran across an old friend of mine on FB a while back to posted a pic of his graduation, in which I happened to be in. I wondered why the pic was so blurry and why they didn't use their phone. I momentarily forgot that back then there were no smartphones and you had to take pics the old fashioned way, with actual cameras and waiting to develop the film and all that.

It's a different topic, but it's still related to the internet and modern technology, but it's crazy to think that back then you could only take like 12-20 or so pics and literally had no idea how they'd look like until they were developed, and of course that cost money. Nowadays we can take pics of literally anything, selfies, our pets, even whatever food is on our plate, because it's all so trivial. It literally takes no effort to take like 30 selfies. But back then due to the cost and the whole development process, we'd reserve those for vacations, birthdays, graduations, family coming to visit from out of town, etc. It's no wonder there were very few pics of my, my bro and my parents all in the same shot, cause naturally one of us had to be taking the picture.

I'm kinda sad my parents didn't live long enough to see the smartphone era. They'd be too old fashioned to care about Instagram and that crap, but it woulda been way easier to get more pics of them during trips and whatnot (no 12-20 pic limit), or just for the hell of it without it being such a hassle.

*CyberCubed* · 09-05-2021, 11:08 PM

I was just thinking how weird it was that you had to take photos with a camera and then take them in to CVS or whatever to get the film "developed" and wait a week or two for them to call you the pick up the pictures.

Such a weird foreign concept now, not to have pictures you take viewable right away but also having to them into a drug store to develop them. Most people don't even get physical pictures for photo albums anymore, they just keep them on their computer or post online.

*Papenbrook* · 09-05-2021, 11:30 PM

Even though I was born around the late 1990's, I remember a point in time where I had no internet.

It was hard.

*IndigoErth* · 09-05-2021, 11:52 PM

I don't know about hard, it was hard to suffer from lacking something we weren't familiar with yet.

I do remember what was probably my freshman high school year (1993/94) having a few classes in the library to teach us about using the internet. Probably the only generation of kids that would have to be taught that in school instead of just being shown how at home. lol (Only thing I recall from that class was looking up names of people on the Titanic and finding out there was a first class passenger, a businessman, who was a relative in the family tree somewhere and died.)

My family probably got internet at home later that same school year or the next.

09-05-2021, 06:10 PM	#1
Prowler Emperor Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Portugal Posts: 8,909	Life before the Internet Do you remember it? I was born in 1990, yet I do remember a time where I didn't have Internet at home. I didn't begin using the Internet until the year of 2000. Basically, I entertained myself watching cartoons, reading comics, playing video games and playing with toys. Our first computer didn't have Internet, so I only used it to mess around in Paint and play Minesweeper and Solitaire occasionally. I'm sure those of you who were teenagers or already adults before the Internet was standard will have more interesting stories to tell. I'm guessing you looked for jobs in the newspapers, and had to write letters to people who lived far away from you. I remember checking teletext on TV whenever I wanted to see the loves ores of football matches or if we needed to go to the pharmacy past dinner time and wanted to know which ones were open 24 hours. Life before the Internet wasn't bad at all. Not saying I'd like to go back to it, but it's not like we had nothing to do. Can't miss what toy don't have. If anything, discovering new things was more exciting. Then again, I was a kid. Ofc I'd like back to those times in rose tinted glasses. What about you?

09-05-2021, 06:18 PM	#2
TigerClaw Mutant Tiger Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Hialeah, Florida, USA Posts: 13,818	I was born in 1973, So I was around when there was no internet, To get the latest info on things such as video games or movies, you had to pick up a magazine. __________________

09-05-2021, 06:26 PM	#4
IndigoErth Team Blue Boy Join Date: Jun 2014 Location: U.S., East Coast Posts: 15,242	Safe to say that a lot of us would be old enough to remember. I suppose my family got it around the time when many people were, but I was in high school by that time. Back then, just the usual stuff kids entertained themselves with. A family friend (mom's childhood friend's daughter) and I used to write once in a whle, then eventually moved to email. Before the internet our computer was just for writing up school papers and whatnot. Though my initial introduction to something that at least looked like a computer was the old Texas Instruments TI-99/4A and our handful of games we had for it. Loved good old "Face Maker" and others. edit: Car Wars and Number Magic... found two more we had. Last edited by IndigoErth; 09-05-2021 at 06:35 PM.

09-05-2021, 06:32 PM	#5
The Deadman Foot Elite Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Maryland Posts: 3,989	Oh god, Cubed is going to LOVE this thread. You just opened pandora's box. __________________ Last Movie Watched: Hell House LLC (2015). Last TV Show Watched: Adventures of Sonic The Hedgehog (S1:E29).

09-05-2021, 07:29 PM	#13
sdp Megan Fox = April Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Tokio, Italy Posts: 9,999	Clearly I'm exaggerating a bit, but not much, by the late 90s i feel like most people had the internet even if they didn't login every day. My dad was a computer engineer for a swedish company so I always had a bunch of computers in my house and a faster connection than average so yeah i was privileged to always have internet but come on by the late 90s most people used the internet even if they had to go to an internet cafe. As a little kid the internet was not as appealing since images were very rare and video next to impossible to watch. Some of my first memories were trying to see trailers for the Nintendo 64 before it came out. By 1997 the internet had improved s whole lot and i frequented almost every day. __________________ *Bye* *TMNT !!! I'm unaliving tonight* Click to join The Drome Discord server

09-05-2021, 06:36 PM	#7
sdp Megan Fox = April Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Tokio, Italy Posts: 9,999	I've had the internet all my life, i don't understand why so many boomers and millennials think zoomers are the first generation with it. Only poor people didn't have internet in the 90s.

09-05-2021, 06:53 PM	#11
MrPliggins Foot Elite Join Date: Dec 2003 Posts: 3,006	Born in '78. Before the internet, I'd play basketball, hang out with my cousin, mom would drop us off at the arcade, mall, or movie theater. I'd collect trading cards (sports and non), comics, Garbage Pail Kids, toys like TMNT, Ghostbusters, Food Fighters, He-Man, Starting Lineup. Watch cartoons religiously like TMNT, Gumby, Mario. I was glued to the tv on Saturday mornings. I had a drawing desk and drew TMNT and superhero art pretty often. Read Nintendo Power and Wizard magazine for my video game and comics news. We got our first computer in 1994. The internet was much different than today. AOL, instant message, chat rooms, newsgroups, mailing lists, busy signals, and hourly rates. Played games in DOS, and no online co-op. Wolfenstein 3d blew my mind.

09-05-2021, 07:48 PM	#15
CyberCubed Overlord Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 41,050	I started using the internet around 1997, as that's when IGN as a site started and ninjaturtles.com existed, my first two websites. Prior to that I just watched cartoons, played with my TMNT action figures, and had Nintendo Power for upcoming games. I was born in the mid-80's so I'm technically a 90's kid, and as a kid in the 90's I didn't need the internet until I started becoming a teen.

09-05-2021, 08:18 PM	#16
~~mrmaczaps~~ Banned Join Date: Oct 2012 Location: Maine Posts: 2,619	I didn't have the internet until 2000/2001. We had dial up. Then before college in 01, I had to get the internet for school work. It was expensive & quite useless at first. The internet was used to pop online, look something up & then get back to the real world. Lower middle class, if middle at all... First pc was a tandy 1000 from radio shack. I excelled at computer classes in middle school in 1995/96ish though, but that wasn't internet connected I don't think. My first laptop was like $2000 bucks. I mostly used it to chat with my friends on AIM or similar programs. Never was much of a gamer. Used SupermanHomepage to look at comics reviews of what I was reading for comics. Still don't stay tied to tech... lol. Even leave home without my phone from time to time.

09-05-2021, 10:08 PM	#17
Coola Yagami Overlord Join Date: Jan 2004 Posts: 14,009	The one thing I don't remember is what I used to entertain myself before the ninja turtles. I didn't really get into comics until the first Keaton Batman movie came out. After seeing West and Keaton I decided to grab the comics to find out what the 'real' Batman was like. Videogame were also a gamble. You had to either buy Gamepro for reviews, rent them if you lived near a rental store or take a leap of faith and buy them. That's why I resonate so much with the AVGN, because back in the day there were a lot of ****** games that only got by on whatever license they were using. I think I got the internet around 1999, so I remember the whole big fear of Y2K. Even my day was like 'I don't see the big deal, even if all the clocks only show '00', no one is going to believe we're in 1900 or 1800 or whatever, obviously we'd be in the year 2000'. Funny story. I ran across an old friend of mine on FB a while back to posted a pic of his graduation, in which I happened to be in. I wondered why the pic was so blurry and why they didn't use their phone. I momentarily forgot that back then there were no smartphones and you had to take pics the old fashioned way, with actual cameras and waiting to develop the film and all that. It's a different topic, but it's still related to the internet and modern technology, but it's crazy to think that back then you could only take like 12-20 or so pics and literally had no idea how they'd look like until they were developed, and of course that cost money. Nowadays we can take pics of literally anything, selfies, our pets, even whatever food is on our plate, because it's all so trivial. It literally takes no effort to take like 30 selfies. But back then due to the cost and the whole development process, we'd reserve those for vacations, birthdays, graduations, family coming to visit from out of town, etc. It's no wonder there were very few pics of my, my bro and my parents all in the same shot, cause naturally one of us had to be taking the picture. I'm kinda sad my parents didn't live long enough to see the smartphone era. They'd be too old fashioned to care about Instagram and that crap, but it woulda been way easier to get more pics of them during trips and whatnot (no 12-20 pic limit), or just for the hell of it without it being such a hassle. __________________ "I was down with TMNT once, but then they changed what TMNT was. Now what I was down with is no longer TMNT and what TMNT now is seems weird and scary. And it'll happen to YOU." Check out my blog for Comic Reviews and other things. https://markepicblogofrandomness.blogspot.com/ I also started The AEW Crew, the All Elite Wrestling Fan Club! https://www.facebook.com/groups/637508120044168/

09-05-2021, 11:08 PM	#18
CyberCubed Overlord Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 41,050	I was just thinking how weird it was that you had to take photos with a camera and then take them in to CVS or whatever to get the film "developed" and wait a week or two for them to call you the pick up the pictures. Such a weird foreign concept now, not to have pictures you take viewable right away but also having to them into a drug store to develop them. Most people don't even get physical pictures for photo albums anymore, they just keep them on their computer or post online.

09-05-2021, 11:30 PM	#19
Papenbrook The King of Nothing Join Date: Oct 2013 Location: No comment -_- ... Posts: 2,755	Even though I was born around the late 1990's, I remember a point in time where I had no internet. It was hard.

09-05-2021, 11:52 PM	#20
IndigoErth Team Blue Boy Join Date: Jun 2014 Location: U.S., East Coast Posts: 15,242	I don't know about hard, it was hard to suffer from lacking something we weren't familiar with yet. I do remember what was probably my freshman high school year (1993/94) having a few classes in the library to teach us about using the internet. Probably the only generation of kids that would have to be taught that in school instead of just being shown how at home. lol (Only thing I recall from that class was looking up names of people on the Titanic and finding out there was a first class passenger, a businessman, who was a relative in the family tree somewhere and died.) My family probably got internet at home later that same school year or the next.