The Internet is a fascinating and mind-boggling creation that is becoming an integral part of our daily lives. But it wasn’t always this way.
Back in the day, the Internet was more like a novelty filled with odd and funny websites that nowadays either barely function or no longer exist. This means that there's a whole generation of internet users that missed out on this remarkable era. So, today let's take a trip down memory lane to see what websites older netizens think youngsters never got to experience.
More info: Reddit
#1
Youtube pre-ads. A magical time.
Image credits: MissClumZ
#2
When people did stuff for fun and because it was cool, not to make money. Basically, when the internet felt like it was mostly people, not mostly companies.
Image credits: karasantos7
#3
Forums in general were great community spaces that you just don’t get on Reddit or Facebook groups.
Image credits: Alternative_End_98
The Internet's origins lie in around the 1950s, when during the Cold War, Americans realized they needed some sort of communication system that could not be affected by Soviet nuclear attack.
Yet, its official “birthday” is considered to be January 1, 1983, as about then it started to resemble the Internet we have now. Still, it was way less capable than the one we have now. To talk about the early Internet and its influence on the one we have today, Bored Panda reached out to cyberpsychologist Mayra Ruiz-McPherson, PhD(c), MA, MFA.
At first, the Internet was mostly used by institutions and universities rather than regular people. Then in 1989, Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web (WWW), which fast-tracked the public’s usage of the Internet too.
#4
All the old Macromedia Shockwave / Flash sites before Adobe bought Flash and it became the internet’s favorite malware vector.
Image credits: TeuthidTheSquid
#5
Thinkgeek dot com
They used to have the coolest s**t ever.
Image credits: damselindetech
#6
Icanhazcheezburger.
Image credits: big_dog_redditor
As our interviewee pointed out, compared to the modern Internet, the beginning of the World Wide Web was painfully slow. Plus, it was capable of way less than it is now. As an example, she gave photo and video sharing: “These activities and behaviors ‘were possible’ back in the ’90s but were quite challenging depending on connectivity, file sizes, limited tools, and limited hosting.”
Still, people were eager to use it and pretty soon a bunch of websites and chat rooms started being created, which brings us to our main topic. It was inspired by a Reddit user, u/milamccormick7, whose account is currently suspended, asking the question “What ‘early internet’ website did Gen Z really miss out on?” on r/AskReddit.
People didn’t shy away from answering this question and the post on the platform got over 15K replies. So, we picked out the most interesting ones and compiled this list. In it, you can find people being straightforward and naming the sites that in their eyes Gen Z missed out on.
#7
Yahoo answers
"Im 13 yrs old . Am I pregunt? " .
Image credits: reyhysterio
#8
The prime of MySpace.com.
Image credits: yarabarry7
#9
Limewire virus initiation.
Image credits: only-3-words
Like MySpace, which still technically works, but it’s way past its peak. Or various forums where people would go when they needed advice on something, like Yahoo Answers, which was shut down back in 2021. Of course, Reddit or other social media can be used for that nowadays, but the vibe is not the same.
At the same time, some people didn’t name specific websites, just the concepts of the internet they miss.
For example, when people created sites for fun and not to make money. Ms. Ruiz-McPherson also indicated that the ability to monetize content used to be initially non-existent, which is a very big contrast to today’s social media.
She voiced that “Modern social media users are inundated, in between clicks, posts, shares, swipes, and content consumption with a tsunami of targeted ads, based on their user engagement patterns.”
#10
YTMND
Flash games
How easy it truly was back in the day to download music/tv/movies through Napster or Kazaa lite.
Image credits: Qwerty5070
#11
Stumbleupon.
Image credits: untitedgoose
#12
Cracked.com - so much great content back in the day.
Image credits: BuoyantBear
Granted, she said that these ads are what make social media look free, as they work as the price we pay for it. “It would make the early internet almost unrecognizable to many social media users of today.”
Others said that the early Internet was filled with people who genuinely were interested, which made building bridges way easier than with the modern Internet. Again, our interviewee added some insight to this observation too. Back in the day, people could use anonymity to communicate and exchange ideas, while today users tend to have more visible and branded personal identities.
So, it could be said that the Internet culture has drastically changed since its early days. Due to the increase in speed, in the 2010s social media and smart technologies flourished, and e-commerce and streaming services disrupted the areas they were in, bringing the service itself to the online world. All this led to over 5 billion people being connected to the Internet in the 2020s.
#13
Just, sort of, the concept of websites. Yes we obviously have them today, but everything is just extremely condensed in terms of traffic. Everyone's on Google, Amazon, and reddit. It used to be that you actually had fun "surfing" the web (yeah I just now at this instant realized this isn't really a term anymore), finding nifty different sites, telling your friends of your findings and adventures, etc.
Not too early web but stumbleupon was big for that.
I think this condensation started with Facebook. A friend and I had a realization at one point that we didn't really use "websites" anymore, but that even "websites" for companies or ideas or whatnot were just Facebook pages. Since then Facebook is now not as popular, but the point remains. .
Image credits: Xolver
#14
EbaumsWorld, AlbinoBlacksheep, Newgrounds, Homestar Runner, and Xanga were where I spent a good chunk of my early teens.
Image credits: Rand01TJ
#15
Image credits: Specialist-Yam-6786
This led to something Ms. Ruiz-McPherson referred to as a “weight loss” journey of the Internet. New features and trends started making the web more and more user-friendly.
She said that "The internet became far leaner, more agile, robust, and much faster than its previous versions. With each milestone, processes became streamlined with increasingly frictionless UX journeys whereby it took far fewer clicks to get to your online destinations. And an exciting array of content options and commercial possibilities."
Unfortunately, all these advancements also led to many websites being taken down or simply getting stuck in time. The cyberpsychologist mentioned that people who used to become hosts of these sites had the required technical knowledge of HTML and FTP servers, and sometimes even had to know CSS and understand SEO.
#16
The separation of Google and Froogle. If I wanted to search for things and info, use Google. If I wanted to search for products to buy, use Froogle. Now the top hits on Google are all just things for sale.
Image credits: tastygrowth
#17
Rotten.com.
Image credits: screon
#18
The original addictinggames dot com.
Image credits: Xana1128
Now, some of them are still keeping up their creations as archives rather than as working sites, while others closed them for many reasons – from copyright issues to simply not seeing the point of keeping them up anymore.
Well, it’s sad that we can no longer experience websites that were once entertaining for us or others, but that’s just the price we have to pay to have the Internet we have now, which as Ms. Ruiz-McPherson specified, includes “Real-time access and interactions, insanely fast speeds [that] facilitate content spreadability and ease of digital interactions.”
Is there any early internet website you think the younger generations are missing out on? Share with us in the comments! Also check out the Instagram and LinkedIn profiles of our interviewee, cyberpsychologist Mayra Ruiz-McPherson, PhD(c), MA, MFA!
#19
Neopets and Homestar Runner! those were such a vibe back in the day.
Image credits: RadiantFairyBloom1
#20
Not so much a specific site, but the fact that the early internet (talking 1990s here) was a “high trust society”. The only people online were university students and relatively well off people who were genuinely interested in this new technology. So you could meet people on a random IRC channel or telnet talker or whatever and within days or hours you may have swapped real life phone numbers and addresses with them so you could send each other cool stuff in the mail. I got so many cool packages from various overseas countries back in the day and made genuine friendships online in a way that you just couldn’t do today. It wasn’t filled with scammers and the like. You could safely give your actual street address to someone you’d only talked to for a week (especially if they were on a different continent, like what are they gonna do?)
Incidentally I met my wife this way. We were online friends for a while, living on opposite sides of the planet. We sent each other presents in the mail etc. Eventually in the late 90s decided to pay the thousands of dollars to fly to meet in person and the rest is history.
Back then, relationships that started online were super rare, but now I think the majority do, thanks to dating sites and the like.
Image credits: Cimexus
#21
Home star runner.
It's still up and running, nothing is stopping kids now a days from going and looking at it but I've never met anyone born in 2000 or after who has ever even heard of it.
Image credits: ProjectPlugTTV
#22
GaiaOnline, even though it still exists today.
Image credits: Karnezar
#23
Bonsai Kitten
People were so gullible and convinced it was real that the FBI got involved.
Image credits: NecroJoe
#24
Habbo hotel.
Image credits: chuppachup7
#25
Googling "French military victories" and then hitting the "I'm feeling lucky" button.
Image credits: PhantasyAngel
#26
Digg back when Digg was relevant. It was my homepage for YEARS and how I discovered new stuff across the internet before Reddit came along.
Image credits: joeygreco1985
#27
Something Awful, though the forums are still going strong. On that note: G****e.
Image credits: ManiacClown
#28
Zombo com.
Image credits: 14raider
