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These People Made HUGE Mistakes

These People Made HUGE Mistakes

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Times Dark Web Users Felt Like They Were Genuinely In Danger

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Unbelievably Entitled People

Unbelievably Entitled People

Internet Veterans Describe The Ancient Relics Of The Early Worldwide Web

Internet Veterans Describe The Ancient Relics Of The Early Worldwide Web
Federica Galli on Unsplash

It doesn't feel like the internet has been around for longer than it has. Honestly, this whole day-to-day, sun up/sun down usage of the internet has really only taken foot within the last decade. How do I know this?

Not that long ago there was finite things to do on the internet.

Take a gander at some of the stories told by the grandpappies of the information super highway's heyday and learn what it used to be like to log on.

Reddit user, The_watcher_100, wanted to know what life was like for the stone age internet users when they asked:

"What is something ancient that only an Internet Veteran can remember?"

Right off the bat, some of us will read these stories about how the internet used to be and immediately think, "Oh yeah, we used to hurl those discs at one another in the backyard."

Discs? In The Mail? What?

"Netscape Navigator"

"AOL sending discs through the mail offering 500 hours of free web access"

"Alta Vista"

"Ask Jeeves"

Keithninety

"Fun story, I was the first kid (that I'm aware of) to try getting online. I used the free disc. My parents kept saying, "and you're SURE this is a free service?" "Yes, totally Mom/Dad. Look, here's the paperwork!""

"The problem was that I was in a small mountain town and the closest AOL connection was about 300 miles away. So I racked up like 120 hours of long distance telephone calls at a time when long distance telephone was NOT cheap. It was something ridiculous like $600 in early 90s dollars. I very much got in trouble."

MrMartyJones

Days Gone By

"not HAVING internet and playing Minesweeper, Solitaire, and Pinball instead."

morenitababy

"Roller Coaster Tycoon"

nessao616

"The trip from no internet to pinball was muscle memory for me... and we didn't have internet a lot because mum had to use the phone"

inbedwithbooks

Edgy 6th Grade Content

"When it was called the 'information superhighway'"

attictapes

"In sixth grade I wrote an article for the school newspaper contending that it should be called the "information toll road" since it cost $10 a month for 5 hours of use."

mfrizz

Wait...Wait For It...Just Wait...

"Weird little squares with blue and red on them that would sort of take the place of graphics until the graphics would actually load. The text would be visible but the graphics wouldn't be there yet."

hellogriff

We don't remember the internet being as bad as it used to be. Nowadays, anything and everything we ever needed was within our grasp, but before? Not so much.

Have To Make It Past The Awful Formatting

"Printing out pages and pages of cheat codes for games."

VastNewt

"Man when I was a kid and would go to the grocery store with my parents I would take a pen and paper and copy the codes out of the gaming magazines! Used to have all the cheat codes for GTA 3 that worked for Vice City and San Andreas"

celesticaxxz

Way To Trick Friends In Class

"The .com version of a .org/.gov site being porn."

VapityFair

"Whitehouse.com. ah the good ole days of convincing kids in computer class to look up something about the president."

BFOTmt

Oh, I've Checked All My Websites. I'm Done For The Day.

"Actually running out of Pages on the internet to look at."

FighterWoman

"You could always use the Stumbleupon toolbar in internet explorer to go to a new site."

_harro_

"Oh man! You reminded me of StumbleUpon. It was the original "content finder" for me. Replaced by Digg. Replaced by Reddit."

mysixthredditaccount

The times are changing.

For the better. No one ever needs to go back to yelling at your sister to get off the phone because you've spent the last two hours downloading one song.

Ads! As Far As The Ads Can Go!

"Readable Newspaper homepages"

Karakoima

"seriously, what happened with them? news sites are always so messy"

CinnamonArmin

"Advertisements. It’s all about advertisements."

Kachi3

The Things We Used To Scream At One Another

"using the internet or the phone not both"

Myrko6902

“GET OFF THE PHONE IM TRYING TO USE THE INTERNET” simpler times"

mymindisanenigma420

"GET OFF THE INTERNET I NEED TO MAKE A CALL" -my mom, constantly"

xx2983xx

Everyone Had To Understand The Backend

"Making webpages using simple html"

HeyHx2

"I was talking about this with my 17 yr old & her friends because they were asking how I have the computer literacy I do. I had to explain that social media as it is today didn't exist. If you wanted a place where people could find you, you had to teach yourself html & build a webpage. Then when MySpace showed up, most (if not all) editing had to be done in html. There weren't simplified websites or apps to edit photos either."

"They were amazed & the most impressed with me I've ever seen them be. I felt like a elder sharing my wisdom with the village... at 36 yrs old."

OpossumJesusHasRisen

Maybe we should be a little more grateful the internet is the way it is now. Reminiscing about how things is super sad.

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internet

Things People Secretly Love But Would Never Admit To In Public

Reddit user sweet_chick283 asked: 'What do you secretly love that you would never admit to in public?;

Collection of VHS tapes
Bruno Guerrero/Unsplash

What makes us all unique is our passions and the things we love, whether it's singing in the shower, reading books, or listening to specific music artists.

Unfortunately, we live in a world where we are judged for our various tastes and interests thanks to social media, and it makes us consciously selective about sharing the things we love on the internet.

Curious to hear about people's personal desires under anonymity, Redditor sweet_chick283 asked:

"What do you secretly love that you would never admit to in public?"

These aren't really chores for the following Redditors.

Good Clean Fun

"Mopping, im a janitor and generally hate my work... but damn mopping is so good."

– MrDDog06

"When you have a great rhythm going it is something special. I get the same feeling while I vacuum, but won’t let my wife know I enjoy it."

– Bogus_34

Act Of Unwrinkling

"Ironing clothes. A dozen of them. Can’t explain how it relaxes me. I told one person and they looked at me like I’m crazy."

– eerie_white_glow

"My mum misses the days when dad would be out on a Friday night, my brother out with friends and me upstairs quietly playing PS1. She would pour herself a Bacardi & Coke and do the ironing while watching her TV shows."

"I'm sure she doesn't really miss it now that we've moved out and they've retired but it was her wind-down after a busy working week so I can see how people can find it relaxing."

– xdq

Our solo actions can spark joy.

Big Brother Is Watching

"pretending to be on the Truman show and whenever im in my house i act all inconspicuous so they dont know that i know that they’re watching me."

– Bec_121

"C’mon man, you’re not supposed to let him know. You signed a contract when signing up for live views. I’m reporting you."

– doeswaspsmakehoney

The Multi-Tasker

"Playing video games naked at home while eating cheese."

– thickening_agent

Releasing The Kraken

"I love the feeling when you've eaten good fibre and let out a solid long train log in the toilet. That feeling is heavenly."

– therapoootic

"Even better when it’s a clean wipe and not a poo crayon."

– TheWarmestHugz

Ultimate Comfort

"My (male 41) weekend routine is coming home from work, make hot chocolate, start a fire, dress in a ugly pink nightgown made for old ladies and watch forensic files."

– crazyloomis

Some people are obsessed with collecting things.

So Kawai

"Sanrio stationery stores. All those different multicolor pens, a thousand kinds of erasers, spiral bound notebooks galore... my kids sadly have absolutely no appreciation for this wonderland..."

– HavingNotAttained

It's A Staple

"Office supplies have a weird, special place in my heart ever since I was a kid. They don't even have to be 'cute' necessarily."

"Japan's legendary stationery stores is unironically a reason I want to go."

– _CozyLavender_

Not Caring Anymore

"The older I get the shorter that list gets. Not because I love less things, but because I don't care about hiding it."

– Bi-Beast

"YES!! I'm 53 now. I'm working my first job in public since 2006. Today is Halloween and we're allowed to dress up so I am sitting here waiting to go to work dressed as a VERY bad Wednesday Addams. My bf said I'd 'look stupid' because no one else will probably dress up and I'm like, 'WHO CARES!' My makeup looks horrible and not like I practiced, but I DO NOT CARE! I'm having fun with it anyhow and I don't care if my coworkers dress up or not. I'm bein' ME! :)"

– deanie1970

Honorable mentions start here.

The Savior

"Picking up worms from the street and sidewalks when it rains and moving them into the dirt so they don’t burn in the sun, every time it rains I do this."

– sky_kitten89

Hero Of The Moment

"Yoooo I scoot SO many snails and worms. I work as a tech/mechanic at an automotive shop, I had a peoject car towed to my house the other day and it was covered in snails. I saw them when the tow guy/coworker was unloading and I was like, 'oh! It comes with free snails!' and began moving them. He laughed then realized and said, '... Oh, you're serious. Uh... Okay.'"

"I don't care who knows it. These little things barely can look out for themselves, why shouldn't we if we can take a moment to help? I don't care what happens next, it probably doesn't matter overall but I can help this moment."

– chris14020

Why should some of the hidden desires mentioned above have to be secret?

Redditors opening up about some of these would make them a hit at parties–no shaming.

As a matter of fact, I'll totally be down for a Forensic Files viewing party where we all make hot chocolate, light the fireplace, and cozy up together in our respective pink ugly nightgowns for old ladies.

secret

Historical Events So Ridiculous They Sound Made Up

historical reenactors
Sigmund on Unsplash

We've probably all heard some variation of the saying "Truth is stranger than fiction."

Real life isn't just strange, it can also be downright ridiculous.

History is riddled with moments of absurdity.

So ridiculous that people have a hard time believing real life is, well, really real.

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history

The Most Embarrassing Things People Have Ever Googled

woman in black long sleeve shirt covering her face
Ivan Aleksic on Unsplash

I freely admit I'm of a certain age where my primary education occurred before the age of the internet—when our questions were answered with conversations with experts, encyclopedias or knowing how to use card catalogs.

My knowledge of the Dewey Decimal System is largely useless today.

Research is drastically different now—sorry Melvil Dewey. Internet search engines quickly became the difference between occasionally finding an outdated version of the information we were looking for and rarely not finding current information on the most obscure of topics.

Unless your Google game is super weak, you're likely to find what you're looking for or something close to it unlike the good old days when our chances were hit or mis—with lots of misses.

So what do we use this amazing, life-changing tool for?

Well...

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technology