The Old Internet of 1995…A Simpler, More Exciting Time

Every once in a while, I find myself yearning for a not-so-distant past. The past I yearn for is not the 50’s 60’s, 70’s, or 80’s. It’s the 90’s. Specifically, the mid-90’s. Why do I yearn for this year? Well, as I mentioned in an earlier post, 1995 was the year the Internet “opened” for public use. It was also a year in which a fair amount of people had access to the Internet. Not a whole lot of people, but an amount large enough to form something of a community. In 1995, the Internet was a small community populated largely by geeks, since geeks were one of the few groups in America who possessed enough inclination to actually buy and learn how to use a computer.

The Internet back in 1995 had a strange feel to it. At least, I think it did, but I’m looking at all this in hindsight. Anyway, the feel was that of an unexplored wilderness where anything was possible. The Internet was a wondrous, mysterious, and even dangerous place. It possessed the qualities I now associate with the deep web. In contrast, the Internet of today feels like a sterile office space where everything is cordoned off into its respective spaces. There’s no more mystery. Everything seems to be a known, the unknown has been all but vanquished (thankfully the unknown of the deep web is still around). So, it seems that I don’t yearn for the past so much as I yearn for that feeling of mystery, excitement, and unexplored horizons. After all, I don’t yearn for the dial-up speeds or the baseband connection. I’m glad those are gone. Though, I do feel a pang of nostalgia whenever I hear the AOL tone signaling an attempted connection to the Internet. If you’re older than 20 years of age, you know what I’m talking about.

As I mentioned above, I’m looking at this from hindsight. To add another perspective, let’s take a look at the Internet from the point-of-view of a geek from 1995. Did he have the same feeling I get whenever I remember the Internet in 1995? Probably not, or maybe he did experience the same feeling of mystery and excitement. After all, the Internet was “new” back then. Or, perhaps, the geek in 1995 yearned for the ARPANET of 1985 and before. Maybe the geek in 1995 saw his Internet as I see my, 2015, Internet: as a boring, commercial, sterile wasteland. The Internet was commercial back in 1995 and, while not as commercial as today, would have seemed as commercial to the geek in 1995 who only had the ARPANET for comparison. We all seem to long for those glory days that, perhaps, weren’t as great as we believe. 

I guess it’s all in a person’s perspective. Perhaps the Internet will morph into an even larger sterile, commercial environment 10 years from now, and I’ll long for the glory days of 2015. Heh, it’s a funny thought.

Ten years ago, I couldn’t imagine the Internet getting much bigger. Over those ten years, I’ve witnessed it grow. And right now, I can’t imagine the Internet getting much bigger. Perhaps I ought to learn from my past misconceptions about the Internet. The Internet is a constantly shifting, moving, expanding, growing life-form. It’s difficult to say in advance what will become of this life-form. I think the one sure thing about the Internet is growth. It will grow and grow and grow with no clear end in sight, barring a nuclear war.

With all this in mind, let’s keep an open mind about our current Internet and its future. There’s still much that can happen. Not everything that will be invented has been invented. It’s up to us, the citizens of the present transitioning into the future, to create and innovate. There’s still plenty of mystery and excitement to be had. We just need to look past all that commercial crap and, while that’s kind of hard to do these days, it’s a worthwhile endeavor.

So, go forth and run on wires of glass and electric fire!