Early Internet
When we were briefly living with Adam’s Granny Nita before we left Nashville, Adam found an audio tape recorded back in 1991 on which his Granddad Kenneth was speaking an audio letter to a friend of his. Adam digitized it, and right now we’re listening to it on his computer. It’s amazing. Adam said that Granddad Kenneth was among the first to get an email address as soon as the Prodigy network started in 1990. It’s interesting to listen to this old man talk about how a distant relative had found him on the internet and invited him to a family reunion in Ohio. This is 1991, 15 years ago.
My first two distinct memories of the internet and email were in early high school. I remember the first time I really used the internet was in Freshman English in 1995 (it might have been 8th grade). We had to write a research paper, and we were required to have two internet sources! I had no idea how to find internet sources. I thought everything on the internet was unreliable; I mean, can’t anyone write anything there? It was a wild place. So, my dad took me to his office, and he showed me how to search by key words on Yahoo. I was very frustrated because I couldn’t find much of what I was looking for. I thought the internet was pretty dumb.
I remember some of my peers in science class in 1996 exchanging their email addresses, and I couldn’t imagine the point of an email address. I asked them why they didn’t just call each other. I got my first email address in 1999: Raudoggy@aol.com. I still have it, but don’t try to email me there. I check it about once a year.
It’s amazing how fast things change. It hasn’t even been ten years since I got my first email address, but since then, I have found my husband, found jobs, reconnected with old friends, met international friends that stayed in my home, blogged for people around the globe, bought all manner of things, sold my music, researched and learned about everything, etc. all on the internet. What will the world be like in 10 more years?
-Jessica
