this post was submitted on 03 Apr 2026
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In the mid90s, l too was in middle school, but that was the time when l was actually getting acquainted with world wide web.
I started typing classes in 2nd grade and I spent a ton of time at my local library going into middle school. My intro to the internet was Bolt and the SciFi channel chat rooms in 6-7th grade. We watched a ton of SciFi channel stuff and they were constantly advertising their chat rooms.
Go Sliders chat!
Were you born in 84 ?? Anyways, since you're so close to my age, I might learn more new stuff about internet history from you, as you've actually been using the internet back then.
I am an 84 baby! I don’t remember a whole lot about that time as I only had access at the library, but we did go a few times a week. Most of my time was spent on either Bolt talking about punk music and books or in chat rooms talking about Sliders, Star Trek, and science fiction. I was part of the initial push to renew MST3K way back in the day when online petitions were far less frequent. I remember building my first web page on Geocities and how everyone had a visitor tracker to compare how “popular” our websites were. It was a simple time with a lot less distraction.
I didn’t have a computer at home until I turned 18. When I finally did, I played a lot of Quake and hung out in some IRC channels. Again, talking about punk, scifi, and books.
Other than no longer having a Geocities page, my internet activities haven’t changed much over the last 30ish years. I still primarily talk about punk, Star Trek, science fiction, and books, now splashed with bunnies and plants lol
On the off chance that any of my old scifi channel chat room friends are out there, Pony says hi to Carly, Joe, and Drew.
It was in 98 probably....... Definitely before the Y2K 🐛, that l got a hands on exposure to the internet at the British Council Library. Also to multimedia at the same time.
It’s good you still got in early so you can remember what it was like before enshittification. Libraries are magical places. I used to spend entire weekends there online or reading. I still go at least once a week to borrow blurays and books. I’m building a digital collection of moves and tv shows with my borrowed media.
What was the first place you remember hanging out online?
Myspace ??🤔🤔🤔
Yeah, that was probably my first more mainstream social media too. I don’t hear a lot of people who remember Bolt.