being online
first time using the internet
internet
internet friendship
internet relationships
music
napster
take that
Do you remember the very first time you used the internet?
By nagikka
@nagikka (407)
Italy
October 14, 2009 2:04pm CST
We all started somewhere, do you remember when you first got online ? what did you do ? what websites did you visit ? what was your first impression ?
As for me, I don't exactly remember when I started to use the web or at least, I don't remember the exact year but since at that time I was obsessed with the british pop-band Take That I should have been around 16 years old.
My dad still worked at the local hospital and he had free access to the internet room, therefore one day he decided to bring me and my sister with him and give the web a try. It was a Sunday morning and starting from that day, we used the web once a week. It was a huge room with many computers and the connection was super-fast, also because most webpages had only text and some low quality pictures.
The first website that I visited was Take That official webpage eheh I tried the forum and I loved it even though it was a html based one. I started to talk to other girls about Take That and eventually printed out some material from other webpages, stuff like lyrics and the like.
Some time later I found out about Napster. Cool days, I was crazy ahah.
While surfing the web I also got to know about real-time chat rooms and used MIRC for the first time, that's where I started to make internet friends. My sister was in the same room on mirc and she even found a boyfriend ahah they split up but we're all good friends still :)
That's my story, how about yours ? :)
3 people like this
25 responses
@lovelyn_medrano (3070)
• Philippines
14 Oct 09
Oh it was a dial up connection!!! I was using ISP Bonanza card. It is hard to get in especially at night. It usually takes hours before I get connected. Well those are the days. I only used internet before for my projects in school, nothing much. There was no facebook... friendster that time. So it is basically for reseach and school project purposes only.
@starsailover (7829)
• Mexico
14 Oct 09
Hi lovelyn medrano: Thank god this days have ended Lol XD. I remember those days too there was no Youtube, no facebook. I wonder how do i find Internet so interesting without those tools i've used everyday now.
1 person likes this
@lovelyn_medrano (3070)
• Philippines
15 Oct 09
Right! It is really amazing, we have such technology like this now. I don't stay long on the net before.
@calai618 (1773)
• Philippines
14 Oct 09
my story is a bit similar to your. i also can't remember the very first time i got online but one of the firsts i remember was me trying to search for stuff regarding my "idols" before (devon sawa, backstreet boys, take 5, etc). i was only about 12 years old (12 years ago) and my sister was in college at a school inside a hospital. they had free internet hours for students and my sister gave some of her to me. i also remember trying to play one of my fave songs before (hard to say im sorry by az yet) and it played all over the internet shop but the attendant maybe got pissed so my speakers were suddenly disabled. I also remember shouting when someone's message popped up of my screen. i got too excited lol that was really embarrassing. the attendant even reminded me not to believe in anything people say in the internet because you wouldn't have any proofs to verify what they say and up to now I haven't forgotten that tip. :D and yes you're right, it was MIRC that was sort of "in" during that time.
2 people like this
@nagikka (407)
• Italy
14 Oct 09
ahah even my sister was a fan of Devon Sawa and Backstreet Boys !! :)
do you still use mirc anyway ? I don't know If it's just me but I don't think it's being used that much anymore, people like Msn better and the newbies don't even know what MIRC is. Too bad because I loved it, my cyber friends had set up a bot that used to be online for me even when I was off and it was also meant to keep our chat channel which name I won't tell because it was kind of rude lol I'll just say it's a Slipknot song with a mathematical sign in the title ehehe the channel had private access, old lovely times :)
1 person likes this
@calai618 (1773)
• Philippines
15 Oct 09
i don't think there's still MIRC either. i use to always chat there before but i wasn't able to have constant chatmates. just random ones..my sister and cousins also have our own private room but i forgot it already. i think i stopped using MIRC when i got more addicted to other celebrities so all i did was yahoo search for all of their sites. the "in" thing that time was Yahoo so i had plenty of yahoo accounts too. until now i still have my very first email :D those are the days. :D
2 people like this
@nagikka (407)
• Italy
15 Oct 09
you know, on the last time that I used Mirc I noticed that people tend to use it more for downloading stuff that's "hidden" inside bot's instead of chatting with friends. I liked MIRC better than MSN anyway, it probably has to do with feelings and emotions concerning the huge amount of time that I used to waste with that program, but it had a lot more of options such as chooseing a chat room basing on your interest, being able to see what kind of interests other people had (the whois option), being able to leave a chat channel open with bot's to guard it and so on. Geez why do I always have to get all melanchonic about the past eheh
1 person likes this
@jessi0887 (2788)
• United States
15 Oct 09
Well my mom had to be hospitalized when i was like 12. SHe had preeclamsia and they had to deliver my sister early. So while my step dad was tending to her my sister, my brother, and i stayed with a neighbor and family friend. They showed me aol. I then proceded to use it often while over there. My favorite thing was to go into the teen chat rooms. Was so fun. Later when my mom was home she set me up an account and i have been internet accessible since then. :)
2 people like this
@wahmivy (776)
• Philippines
15 Oct 09
I actually do. I was in college and my friend said she wanted to try chatting. I went along with her to this place on campus that let you use computers. I tried it out since I was also curious. From there, I made my first email and was addicted since. :)
@nagikka (407)
• Italy
15 Oct 09
chatting is what caught my attention, too :) before going online for the first time I was always using a program on the Macintosh which was called "Eliza", it was some kind of a chat with the computer, a bot that'd respond to your questions and act like a shrink. I was addicted to it and always thinking "it'd be great If I could chat like this with someone human". A few years later I did and now it's become so common that it's part of everyday's life.
1 person likes this
@coolsudan (313)
• India
14 Oct 09
after my 10th i had taken classes for learning computer(stupid thing .....i regret those classes now)
there i met few frnd swho took me to the cyber cafe just for fun ...and the first site they showed me was an adult site .. i was almost going to omit when i saw that. couldnt even sleep for nights !!!! those guys apologised to me later ...and as i didnt had pc at home i never again got to see it :)
i still dont like to surf on that side of net (adult sites) the first experience was really shocking one!!!!!!
2 people like this
@nagikka (407)
• Italy
15 Oct 09
eheh yeah I can understand that such a website can show a kid, while older ones are willing to show they are being trasgressive by visiting xxx websites eheh when I was 9 my best male friend was always telling me stuff like "do you know how children get born" and stuff like that which kind of shocked me lol
1 person likes this
@knygma (61)
• Malaysia
15 Oct 09
I remember the first time I used the internet I was so obsessed with the computer gaming world. Gamespot.com was my most visited site. I frequently visit Gamespot to look for new games. At that time internet was damn sloooow, using a dial-up connection with only 56K connection. Then I got introduced to internet relay chatting. mIRC was very famous that time. But I'm not very into chatting those days. My past internet experience was filled with p2p downloading using Kazaa, limewire, imesh (ahhh the good ol' days...). Most of the time I downloaded abandonware games at really had fun with it. Even though speed was lame those days, I really missed that day so much.
@cheenlly (3476)
• Philippines
15 Oct 09
Same here, i don't remember either when was the exact date that i ever used the internet. All i can remember is that was during my first year in college year 1996 at school. But i can rarely used the internet at school instead i tried to learn the first time on internet cafe. It was the Yahoo messenger and the yahoo mail that i first learned and i was then addicted that time to chat but after couple of months i overcome my addiction and stop internet. It was 3 or 4 years ago that i started back using internet and during that time i have learn the opportunity of making money online.So that was started my homebased part time job until now :)and oh well most importantly internet now is our only communication of my fiance.So it is very very important for me.
@Bluepatch (2476)
• Trinidad And Tobago
15 Oct 09
I don't remember the first time but I just kept going from page to page or was it site to site wondering exactly what to actually do.
I also don't remember how I got used to the net. It must have been with sites like mylot where I eventually got comfortable after constant usage.
I have never taken a computer course either so everything I learnt was from experience and asking questions.
1 person likes this
@singing1227 (315)
• United States
15 Oct 09
I do remember the first time I used the internet. I was in about the 4th grade. We got our first family computer, and my Dad finally had everything up and working. I logged into my e-mail account, and then I went on internet explorer. Obviously,it was a lot slower and there weren't the same search engines there are now. I think I went to the AOL site and played a game. I thought it was so cool!
1 person likes this
@jodylee_04530 (1097)
• United States
15 Oct 09
I don't really remember the first time using the internet but I do remember how scary it was. So much information and so much opportunity to take advantage of people. I was a bit frightened by it. However, I do remember feeling like it was a big break in technology.
@nagikka (407)
• Italy
15 Oct 09
this is so true, on the first time we were all amazed by its possibilities and now it's become such a big part in everyday's life: everything's controlled by computers through the web, even the smallest shop have a computer and use the web, Universities and other places have made most of their services to be accessible via-internet. It's definitely been a big break in technology.
@kutedarsu (254)
• India
15 Oct 09
Hi Nagikka, i started to use web and net on 2000. My lover helped me to do some project while i need to search for something, my lover helped me in a browing centre on my 10th standard. It was the first time i created a own yahoomail id for me and i learned something on that day.. From that day one i started browing and i improved and i learned a lot..
1 person likes this
@offlimits (596)
• Philippines
15 Oct 09
I could not also remember the exact date but what I remember is that it was my dad who taught me and made me a Yahoo account. Haha. That's when I start to email my friends. I still even have the first email message in my account and all the other messages that my friends sent me. We were like crazy because we were sending messages to each other although we were always together in school. I still laugh at those moments until now. Haha. And I also visited some artists' website back then. I always searched for the songs' lyrics and I sing with them. LOL. Social networking sites like Friendster also became popular so I signed up for almost all of them, I think. I can't remember my passwords in them now. LOL.
@xzjchina (44)
• China
15 Oct 09
I first had access to internet ten years ago. I went to a cyber cafe in my city. I reckon it should be the first internet cafe in my city. Most webpages I visited were only text, therefore I thought it was so boring at that time. As time goes on, I find internet is such as useful tool in our life. I even cannot leave it.
1 person likes this
@lefthooklacey (53)
• United States
15 Oct 09
Great question. I have thought about this often. I always try to go back and think about the first time I did everyday things that we take for granted now, like the internet, video games, or even driving a car.
The first time I ever used the internet was around 1994-1995, I was in high school and some friends and I were planning a road trip to Busch Gardens Williamsburg. I had heard that you could go online and print off a coupon to get $10 off admission. The only person that I knew that had internet connection was my older cousin. He lived up the road from me so off I went. I remember it taking forever for everything to load, but I finally got to the website and printed off 4 coupons for me and my 3 friends. It was kinda crazy because he had to pay for internet by the minute like a cell phone, there was a clock running in the upper right hand corner of the browser so you could monitor your usage. My how quickly things change.
@nagikka (407)
• Italy
15 Oct 09
nooo now I remember the clock thingy on the screen! I had something similar when you had to pay for the total amount of time you spent online, it was terrible! one year I thought the phone company didn't notice I was using the web infact for months and months we got bills on which wwere listed only the activities we did with the phone (phone calls only). We started to leave the PC connected for hours and hours untill a few years later we got the total bill LOL my dad had to pay a couple of millions liras :P
@rdadey (484)
• Canada
14 Oct 09
I vaguely remember my first time on the internet but do know it was around 1995. That means the computer I had was an IBM 486DX2-66, 1x CD Rom drive and a 2600baud modem. I was already phoning Bulletin Boards and downloading software. Now, I also recall the cost was 30 hours for $30 and they were thinking about charging for downloading. For a while while the company was setting up the internet in town it was unlimited. Can't remember much about surfing but it took forever for pages to load.
1 person likes this
@nagikka (407)
• Italy
14 Oct 09
the old snail-like modems right? :) I remember they were also very noisy, or at least mine was. Like you said, the internet used to cost A LOT and my parents had set a limit for the hours I could spend online. I remember trying to connect without them hearing, coughing loud to cover the modem noises AHAH just as If they wouldn't notice I did extra hours by checking the bill :)
@phoenix1344 (698)
• United States
14 Oct 09
Wow Nagikka!
What a great question! Hmm, the first time I ever went on the internet? I can't say exactly how old I was.. but I want to say between 11-12? Maybe a little younger? But my first website I went onto was AOL and I guess I had this little email account for kids? I got online because I had a school penpal in Autralia and I was so excited to hear the 'You've got Mail' the first time I signed on.
But to be honest, after I got the message... I got pretty bored. There was literally no where else for me to go, so i lost interest for the next couple years, lol.
I only got back into the internet when I discovered chat sites at age 13.
1 person likes this
@nagikka (407)
• Italy
14 Oct 09
we were all into chat websites, weren't we ? :)
I used to have a pen-pal in Aussie too but when the web started to gather to many users, we eventually stopped sending letters to each other. It's kinda sad, I loved writing letters and waiting for them, I loved to open the mailbox and find it filled with colorful envelopes. Too bad it's all been lost because of the internet.
@starsailover (7829)
• Mexico
14 Oct 09
Hi nagikka: I don't know exactly the moment where i first use the Internet but i can tell you that i was a disaster using the internet!. I didn't know exactly how to look for my intersts on the Internet and i loose a lot of time doing almost nothing. The first pages i have visit where some chat pages. In that moment i was 13 or 14 years old so i wanted to know a lot of people. Lol.
1 person likes this
@nagikka (407)
• Italy
15 Oct 09
judging by the comments I've received so far, we were all very curious about the possibilities offered by chat rooms, and curious to experiment what it was like to chat with someone sitting in the other side of the world. I remember that on the first times I was always thinking "woah I'm talking to someone who's in the Uk ! IN THE UK!! and I'm doing it while sitting at home, this is brilliant!!". Now we're all so used to it that we don't even stop to think how much it's changed us and communications :)
@deepasubramani (1074)
• India
15 Oct 09
Hi nagikka,
I started to use my internet when i was in +2 . I first opend the yahoo page and created a yahoo account.
1 person likes this
@nautilus33 (1827)
•
15 Oct 09
Yes, I do. It happened when was 10 grade. I have waited about 2 hours the people who connect the internet to come. I was so nervous and couldn,t wait any more. I have called them about 5 time and asked them why don't they come. They've said me that there was a lot of work and they'll come a little bit later and I became more nervous. But after about 1 hour they've come and connected me to the internet. The first site that I've visited was my email page. Than I've made a registration and I was so happy that I allready have had a email. Then I've visited a chat room, because that was very popular at this time and I've met a lot of friends and even today a chat with some of them and we're still friends. I've stayed about 10 hours on the computer that day and I went to bed at about 3a.m.
