re: When did you first hear about the internet and what was your impression?

Fall of 1982, a freshman Computer Science class at LSU. We had to go to the computer lab orientation.

The guy giving our class the orientation shows us around, how to use the terminals, etc and tells us about how all the computers are connected on something called a network. He then says "Hey watch this, this is cool! He tells his buddy "Hey Mike, go across the room and send me a message." So the guy goes to the other end of the lab and types on one of the terminals, and on the one in front of us a couple seconds later it says HI JOE.

We were all suitably impressed, and oohed and aahed. Then the guy says, "Someday everybody will have a computer at home, it will be just like having a TV or stereo. (Wow! I think. Imagine that!) Instead of using the post office you will be able to just send your friends a letter over the computer in a few seconds. You will also be able to keep up with the news." Again, we were impressed and thought that was cool.

Then the guy went a bit too far - he says,"Not only that, but someday you will be able to do your shopping by computer. You will just tell the stores what you want on the computer and they will ship it to you." Well when he said that you could hear a few soft snorts and snickers, yeah OK, that's bullshite!! Hah.

A couple weeks into the semester I used the miracle of the computer lab network to ask a cute Kappa pledge in the class for a date to the football game, and she used the miracle of the network to shoot me down. That has to be some sort of historical moment, right?

Purchased my first at home computer 1993 or so. I went to a few sites. That annoying dial up - I said this will never work

I first heard of the internet in the book "Cyberpunk..."
Then I learned that our university had internet connectivity.

I signed up for a VAX account. The first site I visited was the Cleavland Free Net..

I can't describe how cool I thought that was. This is before Mosaic came out.

I learned about windows based web browsing (with Netscape and Mosaic) from Boardwatch Magazine.

Prior to that I'd only been on local BBSs and National Videotext.

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Al Gore told me of his idea but I can’t remember the year.


No seriously mid 90’s

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Lol
I can't believe this went 60+ replies before the OT mentioned Al Gore.

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Finally got cable internet 2000 maybe

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LMFAO. Roughly the same time here for me, Dad upgraded when my Mom and I were bitching that it took too long for songs to download from Napster. Of course then, you were generally downloading the whole album instead of the 1 or 2 songs you actually wanted. Hey let's download this... come back a few hours later 72%, screw the important phone call we might get.

Newsgroups were a big thing in the mid 90s. That crap was wild too, you could find anything posted there.

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I'm thinking to myself, when is the last day I didn't use the internet to some extent? Can't even remember. Even after the over 5 day power outage here after Hurricane Irma I would charge my phone in the car so I could get a quick look at WTF was going on.

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That's actually a scary thought! Can we even go an entire day without it???

Nobody's gonna mention the dude in the compuserve commercial that busts out in his draws with a light saber?

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Link?

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It was one of your links in the OP!

LINK

Had AOL like everyone in the early to mid 90s. Then remember sometime around ‘97 or ‘98 getting on Netscape Navigator on a computer in CEBA. The speed was mind blowing. Then started missing class so I could chat with random ppl in Yahoo chat rooms. A/s/l?