Skip to main content

Discuss amongst yourselves - August 22

Do you remember the first time you had exposure to the Internet? What banal thing did you do with it?

Comments

Anonymous said…
This is easiest for guys, because obviously the answer is porn.

I remember my friend, Nikki, and I somehow tracking down some guys in Nebraska in high school over the internet. We were looking for some cornfed honkies, apparently. I also remember looking up information on Radiohead and Bjork. I wasn't a regular user until my first week of college, when overexposure occurred, and I frantically typed volumes to my friends at other universities to tell them every little last detail of my life. They would return the favor. I am so over that.
Beth said…
I remember when I first got email during my first year of university. The only other people who I knew that had email were a few friends from my residence and none of us had internet access in our rooms. I would go to the computer lab, email them, then return to residence, where I would invariably see them and say "hey, I just sent you an email!" and then they would run to the computer lab to go and read it.

Oh yeah, and we would print up our emails on a dot matrix printer. Seriously.
Anonymous said…
Congenital deformities at www.rotten.com, and gales of laughter at the discovery of Elf Sternberg of the North American Man/Boy Love Association. Oh, yes, and www.suck.com, the archives of which have thankfully been preserved.
Rebecca said…
I think the first time I used it, I didn't understand the appeal and gave the computer over to a friend to finish whatever we were doing. That was in high school.

In university, not only was I learning how to use the internet so I would stop pestering my boyfriend at the time, I had to learn how to use it on a Mac.
Anonymous said…
Katie - Nice. It's good to give into the stereotype of guys looking at porn.

That being said, the first thing I did with the internet was look at porn, and then pull a Paul Reuben in one of the computer labs at Waterloo.

Actually, all jokes aside, the first thing I did was try to make a homepage for myself.

My homepages always inevitably sucked ass.
Anonymous said…
The first time I had email, it was part of an intranet that we used at Unilever Canada (hooray for Lipton). While we couldn't send messages out on the internet, we could connect with other colleagues around the world. My Dad made some good friends in Holland and in England via Unilever email.

I got my first personal computer with internet capability in April 1996; it was a sexy Packard Bell P100 with a 14.4k modem. Woo hoo! I got it right when all my older friends (those already in Uni, like Beth) were all home for the summer, so I didn't have anyone with whom I could exchange emails. Perfect timing.

I remember looking up stuff on BNL and the Hip. And the U of G, naturally.

Later the same day, Ms. Jen came over. After briefing surfing a few mundane sites, she wanted to go into an internet chat room and fake pick up people, so that we could have creepy-yet-oh-so-funny cybersex. I believe that the pick-up line used most was "Wanna cyber?!?"
Dave said…
My cousin Al was the first person I knew with Internet access, and I could be wrong, but I think it was through a 2400 baud modem.

We went to a few chat rooms but all I remember is the wait time being exruciating.

Us: Hey, how are you?
...
...
...
Random girl: Good! You?
Us: Great! This intermanet thing is crazy!
...
...
...
RG: Yup.
Us: So...
...
...
...
Us: Wanna cyber?
Anonymous said…
Cybering with Dave was the 2nd thing I did.

And the third.
Spinning Girl said…
I wish my profile pic was shorter.
kris said…
Of course I did the archaic version of IMing with an ex-boyfriend.

He's dead now. But you probably didn't need to know that.
Just passing through, cool blog by the way.

Popular posts from this blog

I should add...

... that two people were instrumental in my joining Twitter. First, Isha . She sent out an article on it when the application was still brand new. (And I remember thinking, "Screw that noise. Like I need more online commitments.) Second was Rebecca . She joined up just a short while ago, claiming she hadn't met a bandwidth she didn't like . (And then she disappeared entirely from the internets .) It looked nice and pretty over there on her sidebar, and then I got a little jealous. The rest: history. And for those unobservant among you ( Jorge ), the Twitter feed is right there on my sidebar, replacing the old Radio 3 player that I loved, but that I think scared the bejezus out of a lot of people. Also, everyone should join Twitter. I'm needing some diversions , people.
Change Two: Drink More Water Such a simple thing, yet something I just can't seem to find the time to do. About the only water I drink in your average day is whatever sweat happens to trickle off my mustache. Hydration (so the smart people tell me) is a good thing. I'm less fatigued when I drink water. I'm less hungry when I drink water. I'm even less grumpy when I drink water. I promise you nothing especially impressive. Eight glass a day ain't gonna happen. I'm shooting for two on average; two trendy, metallic, not gonna bleed Bisphenol A into my system bottles of water. I know were off to a rip-roaring start, what with the list-making and the hydration, but I'll try to get crazier with future changes. Stuff like: go to work drunk more, and buy a pair of leather pants. For now, let me ease into it.