21 Internet Experiences You'll Totally Understand If You Grew Up In The '90s
The dial-up tone was 'music' to the ears.
By John Lim
Let's be honest here - do you think you can live without fast Wi-Fi, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, HD videos, and smartphones we have today?
Probably not.
Hey, no shame there. This is the world we live in now.
But before the likes of Mark Zuckerberg ruled over social media, and our lives, there was the golden age of Internet - the unforgettable '90s!
Take a trip down memory lane with us as we relive some of the "best" Internet experiences we all went through back in the day:
1. Setting up the modem was a real pain in the @ss...
Before UNIFI, there was TM Net.
Yes, kids from the '00s. There was a time when we had to WAIT to connect to the Internet. By waiting, we mean 30 minutes, not 20 seconds.
2. Remember that screeching dial-up tone?
There was no way to turn the volume down, so it was probably impossible to surf the Internet in the middle of the night when your parents were sleeping. Tough luck.
3. Getting yelled at for using the Internet because no one can call in or out
This is how you cause a family feud.
4. Internet Explorer ruled the world
Good riddance, old friend. You will not be missed.
5. Downloading something was a test of patience, perseverance, and everything that builds up good character
7. You've made sure your friends left testimonials on your Friendster page
Ah, the key to a strong friendship.
8. Speaking of Friendster, you've probably spent hours and hours customised your profile, making sure it looked fresh and erm... "artistic"
9. When you've discovered the joys of instant messaging with ICQ
"WAIT, I DON'T HAVE TO MEET A PERSON FACE TO FACE TO TALK?! LIFE CHANGING."
10. How can we forget the nudges we've received on MSN Messenger?
Were you an annoying nudge spammer? Or the one who also appeared offline to spy on your friends at 3am? ;)
11. As if having two messaging platforms weren't enough, there's also Yahoo! Messenger!
Yeah, Yahoo! was much bigger than Google back then.
12. You've downloaded music, movies, and a number of questionable content on LimeWire
We don't condone piracy. Buy your music and movies, guys!
13. You've listened to music on Winamp because you could customise the player with epic skins
Nothing like a cool 'The Matrix' inspired neon skin.
14. You've streamed free online music on Napster
If you watched 'The Social Network', Justin Timberlake played Sean Parker, the founder of Napster.
15. Spending all your money in Internet cafes because why not
Remember how we used to "ponteng sekolah" to play these games?
17. When you've registered your first email with a really "cool" name
No shame, guys. It's all part of growing up.
18. The immense joy of getting mails in your new mail address on Hotmail or Yahoo!
Unread emails were something you actually look forward to.
19. You've used AltaVista, Yahoo!, and MSN as search engines
These sites fed the curiosity of your younger self.
20. Pen drives were expensive then, so you saved everything on a floppy disk
Weird square-shaped discs that had only 1.44MB to store all your downloaded information.
21. Last but not least, Internet time was a precious commodity that had to be fought for
10 minutes for you, 10 for each one of your siblings. Under no circumstances must you exceed your time!