Ahh, when the internet was young

After my post on Friday I kinda took a walk down memory lane and ended up in the 90s. A time when there were no smartphones and, if you wanted to get on the internet, you had to block the phone line and crank up a modem that was about a ger-zillion times slower than the connection you have now.

That massive thing on the left was a “desktop” computer

I’m taking you way back now. Back to the start of the internet in homes here in the UK. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and even the idea of loading a webpage in less than 20 seconds was a dream. This is back to 1994 – six years before any sort of speedy home broadband (like ADSL) was even thought of. This was a time when the BBC website at bbc.co.uk didn’t even exist. Back then it was called the “BBC Networking Club” and was available on www.bbcnc.org.uk. Originally launched by BBC Education, it was the social networking of the day – or at least an attempt at it. Then it grew before being merged into the www.bbc.co.uk site.

Anyhow, here in 2019, when we’re not on the myriad of social network sites that consume our lives – the mighty Google seems to do a scarily brilliant job at directing us to our favourite page easily.

Back in the mid-90’s though, it wasn’t so easy. Here’s what kids back then had to do to get online and find a site. Remember, this is a time before people were using Google – so here’s Toby Anstis trying his best. Thank God we didn’t keep saying “stroke” in web addresses. Cringe……