People in early 90’s clothing on NBC’s Today Show earnestly debate what this Internet hootenanny IS, anyway. Circa 1994.

“What’s this A with a circle around it? What is the Internet anyway?”

“Well, the Internet is this…giant computer network that’s getting really big now.”

“It’s like….a computer billboard. That’s getting bigger and bigger.”

“You don’t need a phoneline to operate Internet? Why not?”

Damn.

My generation is slowly coming to the horrifying realization that we will have to explain to nieces/nephews/children/grandchildren/students how things like “dial-up” worked.

The Internet Archives Geocities cache will be considered a comically archaic realm, sort of like how we giggle at advertisements and newspaper stories from the 1950’s and 60’s today. Already all those GIFs we though were super cool 10 years ago look about as modern as poodle-skirts and Big Boy fastfood outlets.

I clearly remember my first time using the Internet. I believe it was 1995 and I was visiting my father’s office. I was around 7. He wanted to show me something on a computer and I dearly loved computers, so I happily followed him. We clicked through to a site on environmental issues. Another devoted to Winnie the Pooh. I was immediately fascinated. There was no CD involved? Nothing was stored on the hard-drive? What the hell?

We got a home connection a year later. I believe I trolled my first message board, devoted to a virtual pet video game, when I was 8 years old. That was 15 years ago. Damn.