Both physically and mentally you should (hopefully) be somewhat different from the person you were at 14 (I for one managed to successfully transition out of my scene phase). Much like how we have grown and developed, so too has the technology we use. As such I’d like to take a trip down nostalgia lane as I count down 10 ways the internet has changed since you were 14.
- It’s Portable
Gone are the days when ridiculous trivia questions were left unanswered and arguments remained unresolved. Today every device has access to the net, which means you no longer have to wait until you get home to prove to your friends they’re idiots. We also no longer need dongles or long ass cables because not only is the net portable, but wireless as well (laters dial up sound).
- Myspace (or should I say Myreplaced?)
Am I the only one who misses the customisability of Myspace? The backgrounds, the widgets, the colour schemes, that one song that untimely defined who you were. Unlike Facebook, it wasn’t about how many friends you had but which friends you had in your top 10 (nothing ends relationships like a good o’l fashioned ordered ranking system). I wish Facebook would at least let me change the background colour, the white hurts my eyes in the morning #firstworldproblems.
- MSNo more
If you were anything like me, MSN was life. I must have spent every second on it from the moment I got home to the moment I went to bed. That was where I had some of my most meaningful conversations to date, such as “Hey… not much you?” Let’s not forget the struggle we went through every day, getting our parents off the computer so we could flirt awkwardly with our crush and send love heart emoji’s to our best friend. “Didn’t you see your friends at school?” … “OMG mum this is super important!”
Check out MSN Memories for more nostalgia.
- Limewhat?
While I’m on the topic of things that have become obsolete, does anyone use Limewire anymore? Sorry old friend, you introduced me to this life of piracy but I’ve moved on. I’m just glad I don’t have to inadvertently download that audio clip of Bill Clinton saying he did not have sexual relations with that woman anymore. Getting ‘Rick Rolled’ or ‘John Cenad’ is like a kiss from a rose on the grave compared to that (you just got ‘Seald‘).
- Runescape has changed man
If you are a veteran of the scape then do yourself a favour and don’t make an account on the new servers. Everything is new and different and it will have you walking into Lumbridge like Gandalf into Moria… “I have no memory of this place”. The same applies to all you Habbo enthusiasts, that rare furni you spent your childhood collecting ain’t worth squat no more.
More Runescape memes found here
- Free from the chains
Remember the scourge that was the chain email? These little nuisances used to clog up our inbox’s, threatening us with ghosts that would kill us in our sleep if we didn’t forward to 10 other people in the next hour. Now they have all but disappeared. I guess once FB sharing came along, emails became passé. On a completely unrelated note, every time you read this article and do not share, a puppy dies.
- TH@nK g0D P33p13 h@V3 St0pP3d tYp!Ng 1!k3 tH!s
Nuff said.
- So much room for activities
It has gotten to the point where we don’t have to save things to our computers anymore. SoundCloud and iTunes hold our music, Fb stores our photos, Google Drive stores our documents and Dropbox holds everything in between. We are quite literally living amongst the clouds and our computers are practically empty (all I have on here is anime and porn… um I mean indie films *shifty eyes*).
- You don’t know me (ok maybe you do)
Remember the feeling of not knowing what to search on YouTube or staring blankly at the Google bar? This is something I rarely experience since the internet became a personalised catering machine. Google ads tell me what I want to buy and social media already has my day’s news and entertainment ready for me. Thanks internet, you know me so well; I never wanted to think independently anyways.
- What is an outside?
As everyday activities have increasingly become doable online, the need to leave the house has slowly declined. I watch my uni lectures online, I hand in my assignments online, I socialise online, I do my banking online, I even do my shopping online and have my groceries delivered directly to my front door. If it wasn’t for that darn need for physical human contact, I could live quite comfortably from my computer desk.
With these 10 changes fresh in your mind remember to never take your internet for granted. Think this has been a dramatic difference? check out this video of internet in the 90’s…
If you can think of any other ways the Internet has changed since you were 14, Chattr about them freely in the comments below (jUst d0nT tYp3 1!K3 d!s).