Under a Gibbous Moon

This is a fascinating article, I am fairly certain that very few people have been so completely wrong about so many things in such a short period of time. While, in the comments section, many, many, many people have piled upon the author for this work, I personally have thrown back my memory to that prehistoric time, 15 years ago…

The Internet circa 1995

It was around this time that I saw my first commercial for the Internet. It wasn’t for any specific company (that I can remember) nor did they seem to be selling anything. The scene was at a rather quiet house party. The lights were low and a couple were talking in one corner he hands her (or vice versa) a piece of paper on it with his/her email address on it (a what!?). The tag line of the commercial was that one day our email address would be more important than our phone number.

I distinctly remember thinking, “Ya, right.”

I was not a computer hermit by any means. I spent my idle hours and some of my non idle hours cruising the local BBSs and playing one-on-one deathmatches in Duke Nukem 3D. I had seen the Internet and it did not thrill me.

To me, the Internet seemed to be nothing more than a BBS that you had to pay for. Admittedly, in those early days that was largely true but most importantly, the Internet lacked what it has today, large scale access.

In the early days, Internet access was largely relegated to Universities, computer reserachers and the government. This left the early content of the Internet to be very focused and towards their needs which limited mass market appeal.

Reading web sites and interacting with strangers was alright but unlike the BBSs there was no one else I knew and so it lacked a shared social experience. This, to me, left it feeling very utilitarian.

I remember when I got my first Juno email address. It was neat. It would have been even neater if I knew anyone else who also had an email address (I did get a lot of email though. Oh Lord, the spam I did receive).

Of course, this all changed (except the spam).  First there was CompuServe and then AOL hit us with so many CDs that we never lacked for coasters or impromptu frisbees. It seemed that within a few years, everyone was on the internet and, as the modem speeds improved, the content that could be delivered constantly increased.

All my friends were online and most of them had a Geocities pages. Ah, I remember Geocities, millions of the most eye meltingly bad web sites to have ever graced the Internet, each filled to the bring with stolen images and plagiarized content. Those were the days.

More importantly though, ecommerce was taking its first tentative steps forward, promising us cheaper prices, exorbitant shipping, and access to all the niche merchandise we could handle.

If I remember correctly, my very first purchase online was for a drinking horn.

The Internet has grown and changed radically and rapidly since its inception. Anyone born twenty years ago would not even recognize the internet that existed in 1995 (or suffer the pain of a 9600 baud connection). The main reason for this is the one that the author of this article failed to grasp, the Internet is merely a content delivery system.

He based his entire appraisal of potential of the Internet by what was then currently available. Even the last five years (Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Hulu) have radically changed what we expect from the Internet.

The Internet will continue to improve and change simply because there is no “The Internet”. The Internet simply provides the connection. What is, what was, and what shall be will be determined by us.

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