Ah, you youngsters.

People who have been on the internet for 4+ years and haven’t had their humor devolve into Dadaist, surreal garbage impress me.

Some hipster cred for real here. I first used the internet in 1986, but I didn’t use it regularly until 1995. I used it in 1986 as part of some project to allow so-called “gifted” kids to connect with others around the world.

It was also the first time I’d used what we’d now call a chat room. Back then they didn’t have a name, I don’t think.

However, I was using BBSes of one sort or another from ~1984 on, especially when my comparatively-rich grandparents would allow me to log on when I visited.

Most of what people think is “new” on the internet I’d seen or done on BBSes by 1986. Many of the things that “brilliant” entrepreneurs are “inventing” had been done by 1988 on said BBSes.

It’s funny to watch it all cycle back.

I don’t yearn for a return to those times. The internet is far better, and vaster. But it is odd to see some arrogant 25-year-old “create” something that I used 30 years ago in a nearly-identical form. It’s just on a lot larger scale now, of course.

And computers are so much faster.

FidoNet was pretty awesome back in its day, though. Getting an email then felt like an event. Now it feels like a chore, most of the time.