Nearly four decades ago, on January 1, 1983, the internet was born. Out of those clunky boxes with very little function outside of running numbers and a few chat rooms, the internet has exploded into what we know it to be today.
We created the changing landscapes of social media, blogs, YouTube, and Google. But what have we lost in the process?
The early days of AOL were simpler and had a very specific aesthetic for its time. There was always something new to discover when searching the World Wide Web. Actually, it was the first time we had connections that were instantaneously world wide.
Now, that marvel is lost on youth who grew up with tiny computers in their pockets. For those of us who remember the 90s internet era, let's take a trip down memory lane.
Redditor scatter82 asked:
"What do you miss about the internet of the past?"
The internet was a wild experience back in the day as everyone was still figuring out what the possibilities really were.
The early YouTube.
"When YouTube was a much smaller community and the popular channels were normal people rather than the influencer types we have today."
"Remember the time when yt had the 5 star rating system? Also there weren't a lot of youtubers that brought content on a regular base. Instead there were a handful of videos everyone knew about."
- Nimetski
"Do you remember ad free YouTube? it depresses me like absolute nothing else to learn some of the young'uns here actually don't remember a time where that was the case."
"Miss the days when things weren't scripted and people didn't keep asking for likes and subscribers."
"It's not that they're scripted, most videos have always been scripted, it's that they're too formulaic now. Which is what I think you were getting at."
"Everyone follows the same blueprint to try to get as much ad revenue as possible. Smash like… don't forget to hit subscribe… 2 minutes of content stretched into 10 minutes… And then when they run out of original ideas or get sick of making new content, they start making reaction videos."
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Lost sense of mystery.
"The fact that it still felt like some kind of mystery we had to figure out, there was always another website or something that you didn't know about, you could just kind of find new stuff every day and it felt like you were discovering something, it felt like a process of exploration!"
"Now everything's kind of focused on the same couple of platforms."
"I really miss that feeling of discovery too. Now I just cycle through the same 3-4 apps."
"Mhm, I feel your struggle there, we all do. It's just so strange. But I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing."
"It used to be something to look forward to, you know? Come home from school or wherever like 'what are we going to find today'? Your friends would have found new sh*t too, so you'd all talk about it over the landline phone and you'd have to sit near the phone so you could talk while writing down websites and sh*t."
"I remember one time my friend told me about purple.com which is now a website for some mattress company but back in the day it was... you guessed it, purple. That was it. And I thought it was the coolest thing in the world, someone really bought a whole domain (which felt like a much bigger deal than it does now) just to make a website called purple.com and it was just a page that was purple."
"And just finding so much weird sh*t on the internet that didn't make sense was amazing, especially when it was something small, because it felt like you were a part of a little secret society, or maybe even like you were the sole occupant of this neat little corner of the internet that you found and have now made your own. Like camping points on a trip or something, I don't know, maybe that analogy doesn't make sense in anyone else's mind but it does to me, because it always felt like you were just going around finding new places, cuz that's what websites were, they were places, in a way."
"And that's just not the case in the same way anymore. I still think platforms could count as 'places', especially one like reddit (though it's not as social media as the others). It's just not the same, but also I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. It's not like the internet is over, it's just that period of it, right? And it makes sense to be nostalgic about that time, but that doesn't have to mean that today's internet is anything bad. It's constantly evolving, and it's still exciting to see, even if a lot of it is just egregiously commercialized. Because not all of it is. I still find neat little forums and stuff every now and then that feel self-contained, like they're not on the same wide 'internet' as other things are, because even though it feels like the internet might be dominated by certain platforms and websites, the best thing about the internet is that anyone can be on it, and anyone can put whatever they want on it. (It's also simultaneously the worst part of the internet, but that's a discussion for another place and another time.)"
"But my POINT IS that just because the internet isn't what it used to be doesn't mean all of it is objectively bad. Some parts aren't parts that everyone agrees with, that's just how things go when something gets so big and accessible, it's unavoidable, but the internet itself still contains what it used to, and there's always the possibility of people putting up new stuff. We know it's a possibility because it's constantly happening, even right now. And that's encouraging, right? I don't know, I think it's nice."
It feels too corporate.
"The simplicity and fun of it all. Now it feels very corporate, and people are out just to make a buck."
- Oxygen95
"Perhaps the biggest difference so far. Websites today has ads or something about cookies/subscribing to newsletter 95% of the time."
- y_th0ugh
"I don't even bother reading the news online. It's click bait buried lead filler to get you to scroll past the midroll ad, then one paragraph of actual information, followed by a summary and a pile of ads."
"I read the headlines then look for a primary source like a video or published paper. Cuts out most of the spin and speculation."
"It isn't just the blocking of ads though."
"Old internet was authentic user-generated content. New internet is stuffed with corporate-created search-engine-optimized content."
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The advertisements are incessant.
"No one was tracking you, and everything wasn't monetized."
"Hey, you posted that on another forum too! Buy this cream for $38.22!"
- userdeleted
"I was researching an M.2 drive today, found what I wanted and pulled the trigger on Amazon. My wife comes down to me later saying, 'What's an M.2 drive? I'm getting nothing but ads for this.'"
"Apart from the data mining, I don't know why they'd advertise an M.2 drive to a family who had just bought one anyway."
- nabiolc
"Because amazon's statistics say that people who just bought something are likely to buy another one. They wouldn't advertise it to you if they didn't think it would work."
The aesthetic.
"The absolutely tacky color schemes people's sites had. Black background with yellow text with green links? You betcha. A line of animated GIFs for a page break? No problem."
"And FRAMES, lol. List of links on one side loading stuff into a frame on the other."
"Hit counters and guestbooks."
"It really was the digital equivalent to glitter glue, macaroni, & construction paper in the beginning."
"And it was BEAUTIFUL!"
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Chatrooms in the 90s.
"AOL Chatrooms."
"Same. Except I was on them waaay too young, in retrospect."
"I couldn't wait to get home or for my parents to go to sleep so I could go to the teen chatrooms smh."
"AOL AIM username directory so you could IM anyone in the world who was currently logged on and available at that moment. That's how I found a pen pal in 2004 I'm still in low contact with on Facebook now in 2021."
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The internet is a strange place, and it's evolved incredibly quickly over time. What we miss might not be around anymore, but we can still hold onto those nostalgic memories.
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The old wives' tales.
They are the stories of legend.
I think we all need a big DEEP Google dive though.
Where did they originate?
WHO ARE THE OLD WIVES!
You don't hear about them as much anymore.
It's like science and logic are suddenly a thing.
But they sure are a good way to keep your kids and their behavior in line.
Redditor the_spring_goddess wanted to discuss the tall tales we've all been fed through life, so they asked:
"What is an old wives tale that people still believe?"
"Wait an hour to swim after eating."
What a crock!
So many summer hours wasted.
I want revenge for that one.
Say Nothing
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"An undercover cop has to tell you he's a cop if you ask him."
LonelyMail5115
"Pretty much most advice when it comes to cops are old wives tales. I’m not even a cop but most of the advice you hear is pretty off."
I_AM_AN_A**HOLE_AMA
Say Something
"That you have to wait 24 hours to report someone missing."
Severe_Airport1426
"I really think this one is important and should be the top regardless. As it’s a piece of advice that needs to be relearned and the only way to do that is through awareness."
crappycurtains
"This used to be true. I think they changed it after some guy named Brandon went missing back in the '80s or '70s. You used to have to wait 24 hours if the missing person was an adult because they had 'a right to be missing' and then everyone realized that was stupid and stopped doing it."
AlbinoShavedGorilla
Body Temps
"That drinking ice cold water after eating oily foods will solidify the oil and permanently remain in your body. I informed my coworker that if your body temperature ever reached that point, you’d have bigger problems than weight gain."
chriseo22
"Oh, I have a cousin who 100% believed this. One of those guys who believed every early 2000s internet rumor and old wives tale. One night I chugged a big glass of ice water after dinner and he started freaking out and saying my guts were gonna harden."
"I sarcastically told him to drive me to the hospital if that happened. Obviously, nothing happened and the next morning I said something like 'Thanks for being on standby in case my guts filled with hardened oil.' He just walked off muttering under his breath."
apocalypticradish
Arms Down
"When I was pregnant, I was told by young and old alike that I should NOT raise my arms above my head or exert myself in such a manner because it could cause cord strangulation to my unborn sons and daughters."
Fatmouse84
10 Years Actually
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"Chewing gum stays in your stomach for 7 years."
"I remember accidentally swallowing a piece of gum when I was a kid in like 1995 and just accepting my fate like welp, gonna have this in my stomach til high school I guess."
Gecko-911
I was so afraid to sallow my gum when I was young.
This tale is haunting.
High/Low
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"You can tell the sex of the baby by how you carry."
LeastFormal9366
"Pregnancy certainly wins awards for the most old wives tales. So much absolute BS was repeated to us by everyone we talked to."
IllIIIlIllIlIIlIllI
The Cursed
"If you’re a woman and you wear opal jewelry but opal is not your birthstone (October), you’ll never be able to have children, or will be widowed, or just generally have bad luck or something. You can counteract this by having a diamond in the same piece of jewelry as the opal, though."
"I have a nice opal ring that my parents gave me years ago, and I’ve had other women give me this 'advice' unprompted more than once when I’ve worn it. I have absolutely no idea where it started, but I’m pretty sure this little chunk of silicate rock has no concept of what month I was born in, let alone of how my reproductive organs work."
SmoreOfBabylon
Stay In
"Going outside with wet hair will make you get pneumonia. Or an earache. Or maybe arthritis. Depends on which old wife you listen to."
"Jokes on them - I haven't blow-dried my hair in decades and usually leave the house with wet hair in the morning. On winter mornings, the tips of my hair get frozen. No ear infections or pneumonia or arthritis yet."
worldbound0514
Dreams and Facts
"You never make anyone up in your dreams you've seen everyone in your dreams somewhere else before and never make anyone up entirely."
"How would you possibly prove that to be true? My partner adamantly believes this and tells me this 'fact' whenever I have a dream about someone I've never met before."
mattshonestreddit
"My late wife used to tell me that before she met me she would have dreams of standing at an alter on her wedding day but could never see the guy's face, no matter how hard she tried. After meeting me the face was filled in with mine. Don't know if it's true but one of those things I like thinking of every now and then when I miss her."
Darthdemented
Cracked
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"Some people still believe cracking knuckles causes arthritis."
Choice-Grapefruit-44
"There's a doctor (Donald Unger) that cracked his knuckles a couple of times a day for 60 years, but only on one hand, just to prove it. Both hands remained exactly the same."
MacyTmcterry
I love my knuckles.
Do you have any tall tales to add to the list? Let us know in the comments below.
