Laura

Generation, Why?

Daily writing prompt
Do you remember life before the internet?
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Wellll if you’ve followed my blog for any bit of time, you probably have some clue about how old I am (plus I think it says it in my author tag at the very end of all my posts).

I have this shirt, too 😆

An 80s baby, yessss.

You gotta admit, it’s a pretty awesome decade.

I will preface this by saying my memory is actually not that great, in general. May have something to do with, err…compartmentalization, or something along those lines, but we won’t delve too deeply into that. 🙂

Anyways, so I had to look it up. Apparently the internet became available to all in 1993.

Also the year the fantastically funny Beavis and Butthead debuted.

Huhhh uhhh huhhh

I remember sitting and watching this show with my older brother and sister at the time, (also 80s babies) and my mom getting pissed because she thought it was “inappropriate.”

Yeah, so at that point, no one was going to stop watching it. 😆

“Those goddamn Millennials! With their stupid hats and ugly Christmas sweaters!”
(1981 and 1988, respectively, lol) 😂

Anyways, it’s still one of my favorite shows, til this day.

Where was I going with this?

So, I got off track there. Whoops, my bad.

I remember dial-up internet specifically. The loud screech and the forever and a day it took to connect, and the weird chat rooms. Also if you picked up the phone, it was immediately disconnected with a loud and robotic GOODBYE.

GOODBYE 👋

Man, I was connected to AIM 24/7 when I was in high school. I would have my away message on for days. And sometimes just leave it on and message the people I only wanted to talk to at the time.

Is that the equivalent now of having your phone on Do Not Disturb, but still messaging anyways?

I would still watch it now, if they actually played music videos

Oh wait, you asked if I remember life before the internet.

I remember Hurricane Andrew, and my grandfather turning on the radio to hear the news about it. Yep, that was sucky. I also remember him going outside during the eye of the storm, but I expect nothing less from a crazy ass Marine, born under the sign of the Warrior God. (He was a rageful Aries, yes, but not to his beloved granddaughter, thankfully) 😇

Hurricane Andrew, 1992

So, considering that Hurricane Andrew was in August of 1992, yes I do remember a piece of (actually quite devastating) significant pre-internet, pre-social media history.

More proof that we remember the negative much more intensely than the positive.

Sometimes.

I remember playing all the games (stop rolling your eyes, lol) which would definitely now be considered “retro” on the OG NES console, which my brother still has and uses to this day. I have the retro games on my PC, and indulge myself every once in a while. It was always good, innocent fun. We would play until we got eye strain and headaches, I swear.

I always had to be Luigi, but you know what…I’m fine with that, you can have Mario! 😆

I also remember taking a tape recorder and playing it next to the radio when a song would come on, just so I could record it and listen to whatever part I recorded over and over again, before burning CDs became a thing. 😆

Yes, yes I did. And I am not ashamed. It was a fantastic lesson in patience

Fun times.

And much more simplistic.

Thanks for this trip down memory lane.

Have a beautiful day!

41 comments

  1. 80s music. I did not have the experience of early days of internet in the home. We didn’t even have a landline.

    PacMan is one retro game I would enjoy. Space Invader was another.

    My first time experience of the internet would have been either my late teens or early 20s when I bought a pay as you go dongle with so much internet allowance on it.

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  2. Oh wow. Firstly, so well written. Thank you for sharing with pictures /proof that pre Internet times were amazing.
    Haha, man the nostalgia of some of the things here 😂 1987 I entered the world so I may just be a 90’s baby who enjoyed the latter of 80’s freedom, colorful and fun times! I had no clue that the M in MTV was for Music 😂🫣😫😂😂 but I sure miss looking at cool and hip new music videos! My era included lots of burning CDs! I didn’t have a Nintendo but I was a big fan of the Super Mario cartoon on TV. Cartoon network was awesome back then too! Now my 7 year old gets to enjoy Sonic, Super Mario and of course I searched for Captain Planet on YouTube so that he has THE most awesome childhood experience!!
    God bless. P.s no one misses dial up 😂😅 but we do miss AOL you’ve got mail!

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    • Haha! 😆 Thank you for your very awesome and vibrant comment, I sure did enjoy reading it and greatly appreciate you taking the time to read my writing! LOL, I think we can all agree that dial-up was the worst 😂 🤣 😆
      You are one year older than me, so we probably had some exposure to some of the same things, I had an older brother and sister so they had me into a lot of different things as well lol. Haha, oh no! That was too funny of an admission there. We burnt some “mix-tape” CDs too, those were fun lol 💿 and Super Mario is freakin good!! Glad you enjoyed my trip down memory lane and it’s awesome you are showing your son some classics of the past! Keep doing that, please! 😊

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      • 😅😂😅🤗you’re welcome! I’m sure your siblings wanted to ensure that your childhood was well rounded too 😉. I definitely will keep on for Timothy’s sake! Thanks for taking the time to read and respond to my comment 😊. Keep writing!

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      • You as well! 😊 And yes, a well-rounded childhood is something to certainly be thankful for. And of course, very happy to have your thoughts here, it was certainly nice chatting and reminiscing with you. 😃

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  3. I was lightly following along until I got to the radio and then this HIT. I remembered sleep-overs and calling radio stations with friends all night, trying to sound sexy to DJs, making tapes. hahah Ah, those were the Sun In days I’ve written about. 🙂

    Great post, vivid and fun. I feel awake now. 🙂

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    • Omg 😂 hahaha, that’s awesome! I loved calling into radio stations, my brother does radio and works at some of the stations down here (can’t remember which one) he’s really into it, however – so it was a big part of my childhood, radio haha. 😆
      Sun in!! Yes I remember, 🤣 putting that on all the tie before swim practice haha. Hilarious!
      And thank you, glad I was able to give you a little pep for the day 😊

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  4. You have a wonderful memory of those pre-internet days. I remember making Lego towns with my sister and listening to the local pop station on our giant boom box. I remember trying to see who could jump the highest up the stairs. Then I remember crawling into a pillow case and sliding back down those stairs, pretending that my pillowcase was a speeding bobsled. I’m glad I got to experience those days before internet!

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    • Haha, that’s awesome! 😊 I love that, yeah I remember trying to save up money for just that one thing, and at the time it seemed like soo much money, crazy how our perspective changes so much over time. Glad you liked it, and thank you for reminiscing with me! 😊 💕

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  7. O, my parents played these cassette games! I was a very little child back then, actually I also count as gen y, but I’m 90s kid 😀
    I have Christmas sweater even now, and I love it 😀
    Thank you for sharing all those amazing memories and photos with us, it is so cute, warm and authentic, really 🙂
    I admire all of it 🙂

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    • 90s kid, woohoo!! 🙌 haha 😆 and thank you, it was fun to reminisce on some of the nicer things about the past, of what once was. We have come such a long way now, and I get to have a wonderful connection with someone like you 😊 thanks to technology. 🙏

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  9. As a young Gen Z lass it’s quite nice to hear about what things were like from the decades before my time.

    I can relate to the “keeping your phone on do not disturb but responding anyway” bit… See, my socials (Discord, just Discord) are always on DnD, but it’s really just to silence notifications.

    I have to market (and playtest) digitally for my boardgame project which means I get a lot of people messaging me about activities I’m setting up. People will message me whether I like it or not, I like to make it so they can’t bother me or distract me from irl… But therefore, I don’t actually mind the messages, because… I won’t know they’re there.

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    • It really is integrated, everywhere! It’s insane because I never would believe we’d be carrying around cell phones day in and day out, but here we are. 😆

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  11. We should all thank Al Gore for the world wide web 😉 (hahaha) !!! Bro always had to be Mario too and Street Fighter was my jam (lol) !!! Awesome post Laura ❤ down memory lane !!! I hope you write more of these ~ 🙂

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    • 😆 hahaha, without the internet we most certainly wouldn’t be talking right now, and then I would’ve missed out on your eternally beautiful soul! ❤️ don’t want to even imagine haha. And yep, the brothers always gotta be Mario, I love Street Fighter, too! Haha 🤣 memories are fun when they are happy ones 😊

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  12. I flew back in to Miami for school with a friend the day after Andrew hit. I will never forget the devastation right there in Coral Gables. We also drove down to Homestead, which in retrospect was really stupid. Attila (one of my college roommates) and his family took us in for three weeks, because campus was basically uninhabitable. We stayed on the couch bed at their house in Hollywood. What wonderful people. Attila, shout out wherever you are!

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    • Wow, I can’t even imagine how bad it was further down. That was so nice of your college roommate to do that! Let’s find him 😂 maybe he has WordPress? Haha! But seriously, a sad story, most definitely a tragic piece of history.

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  13. My first time with the Internet was in 1999 when I was 5 years old, meaning the only time I remember before using the Internet was late 1997, 1998, and early 1999. In other words, not a whole lot. But I do remember first playing video games when I was 3 years old (Super Mario 64 was my first video game).

    I loved AOL/AIM too; “You got mail!” And Beavis and Butthead is awesome, I definitely agree with that 😉

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