cmc/cleberg.net

  1#+date: [2026-06-29 Mon 21:12:00]
  2#+title: The Internet I Grew Up With Doesn’t Exist Anymore
  3#+description: A thorough retrospective of my time on the internet.
  4#+slug: internet
  5#+filetags: :personal:web:
  6
  7* Introduction
  8
  9The internet; what can I say? It's the driving force behind nearly the whole
 10world today - economies, countries, communities, and more run solely on the
 11internet these days.
 12
 13However, it wasn't always this way.
 14
 15Once upon a time, the internet didn't even exist. When it did, the internet was
 16a *place*. It was a place you went. You selectively chose to visit the internet,
 17based on your own free will.
 18
 19If you wanted to visit a chat room, or perhaps preview a fancy new Flash game,
 20you visited the internet for a few minutes in the evening before going back to
 21your family or friends.
 22
 23This has changed dramatically in the last 20-30 years. Today, it's 2026 and
 24woven into nearly every part of daily life for the majority of the Earth's
 25population.
 26
 27Let's do a quick checklist and see what requires the internet or becomes tedious
 28if we opt not to use the internet (yes, this list is tedious on purpose):
 29- Banking
 30- Paying bills
 31- Taxes
 32- Shopping
 33- Watching TV or movies
 34- Listening to music
 35- Reading the news
 36- Looking up directions
 37- Ordering food
 38- Booking travel
 39- Messaging friends and family
 40- Video calls
 41- Playing most modern video games
 42- Downloading software updates
 43- Activating new devices
 44- Backing up photos
 45- Storing files
 46- Finding a restaurant
 47- Reading reviews
 48- Checking the weather
 49- Looking up a recipe
 50- Researching almost anything
 51- Applying for a job
 52- Remote work
 53- School and homework
 54- Medical records
 55- Scheduling appointments
 56- Government services
 57- Renewing licenses
 58- Filing insurance claims
 59- Managing investments
 60- Home security cameras
 61- Smart home devices
 62- Navigation in your car
 63- Finding a phone number
 64- Dating
 65- Selling used items
 66- Buying event tickets
 67- Boarding a flight
 68- Receiving package updates
 69- Authentication (2FA)
 70- Password management
 71- Identity verification
 72
 73What a list. How fun. I love being absolutely restricted to a specific
 74technology or method with little to no options.
 75
 76Joking aside, this post is my personal reflection of the internet, and perhaps
 77tech and life in general, over my lifetime. I was born in the late 1990s, but
 78was also born in a rural area of the USA, so I have been privileged to see
 79technology evolve from the "my stereo is the highest tech equipment in my house"
 80stage to the "I have all of human history in my pocket" stages.
 81
 82This post is about remembering these moments from my perspective, regardless of
 83whether the evolutions have been good or bad.
 84
 85As you read on, *please* (*PLEASE!*) send me an email if this post sparks a memory
 86or you have thoughts. I genuinely enjoy hearing these stories from anyone, and I
 87push for you to send them to me as you think of them.
 88
 89* 2001: The Family Computer
 90
 91The family computer. What a throwback. Perhaps you even had a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_place][third place]]
 92computer you visited. Wherever, whatever that computer was - think of that
 93computer as you read this. I will be speaking from my perspective and I hope it
 94resonates with someone out there.
 95
 96I recall coming home from school, getting through required chores, homework, or
 97anything else first. Perhaps you had siblings with which you shared the computer
 98or the TV.
 99
100In my case, we owned an early 2000s Gateway tower PC. A beautiful (read: ugly),
101beige Gateway computer with the spotted cow on it. It sat on a big "oak" hutch,
102with integrated file-compatible drawers and specific spots for your matching
103beige desktop speakers.
104
105#+caption: Gateway Ad from 1992
106[[https://img.cleberg.net/blog/20260627-internet/gateway.webp]]
107
108To use the computer, you likely turned on a very heavy CRT monitor. Perhaps it
109even flickered, emitted you a static buzz, or showed a wavy pattern in the
110graphics. This was the epitome of 2000s technology and people loved it.
111
112#+begin_quote
113*Side note*: We owned a heavy, wooden CRT TV set from the 1970s or 1980s that hid
114all buttons behind a fake, black "speaker" that you could press to pop open. A
115decade or two after we had tossed this TV into our barn for disposal, my brother
116and I took turns hitting the glass screen as hard as we could with a baseball
117bat.
118
119It never left a mark, regardless of how hard we hit it. Why don't we produce
120that quality anymore?
121#+end_quote
122
123If you wanted to use the computer, you had to press a very heavy, circular
124button that would emit a memorable CLUNK as you engaged the button within the
125PC. This would result in an airplane level of whirring while it used maybe a few
126MB of memory and hard drive storage to boot up [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_95][Windows 95]].
127
128#+caption: Windows 95 Desktop
129[[https://img.cleberg.net/blog/20260627-internet/windows95.webp]]
130
131At this point, the world was your oyster. You could do so many things that
132humans throughout history couldn't do:
133- Open multiple programs *at the same time*. Scientists were baffled.
134- Minimize a window, then bring it back later. Pure sorcery.
135- Move files by dragging them with your mouse. We truly lived in the future.
136- Change the color of every pixel in *Paint*. Michelangelo could never.
137- Hear your speakers make a loud POP every time Windows started. Reassuring.
138- Watch a progress bar slowly fill from left to right while estimating "time to
139  complete" at 800 years. Entertainment for the whole family.
140- Crash the entire computer because you opened one too many programs. Unlimited
141  power comes with responsibility.
142
143If you were luckier than I was, you also had access to the *INTERNET* at this
144point. The cyberspace where you transmitted your energy through hyperwaves to
145digital ends of the earth (i.e., sent a message to a stranger).
146
147My family had a dial-up modem until the mid-2000s, so I was rarely to use the
148internet at this point. The extent of my experience spanned between our family
149computer (used for games, documents, and wasting time exploring every single
150menu and application available in Windows) and the church computer lab
151(containing even older computers, somehow).
152
153At this point, there was no ritual to the internet or even to the computer
154itself. The computer was a tool used for specific tasks, such as my mother
155designing pamphlets in some obscure program for printing, or for fun.
156
157Oftentimes, you would sit down with no particular destination. You were
158*exploring*. I use that word specifically because it's how I truly felt. Whenever
159I turned on a computer, I was exploring a digital universe that had not been
160charted before.
161
162At this point, the internet was a distinct place you visited. Or, could ignore.
163If you didn't like computers or the internet, no worries. You could ignore it as
164much as you'd like.
165
166* 2004: Exploring the Web
167
168The internet stopped feeling like software.
169
170It became its own world.
171
172This is the point in my life where the internet became real. I wasn't a pioneer
173by any means, unless we're talking about [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Oregon_Trail_(1971_video_game)][The Oregon Trail]], but I was willing to
174test and brute force any system through sheer curiosity, from a very early age.
175
176At this time, we launched [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Explorer][Internet Explorer]] and loaded up your favorite search
177engine. Perhaps it was Yahoo!, Altavista, MSN, Google, or something else.
178
179This was probably your home page, your default search engine in the browser, and
180had an annoying toolbar installed on top of the browser itself. If you were
181silly enough (like me), you had numerous toolbars that sacrificed valuable
182screen space for the sake of /nothing/.
183
184Suddenly, you could find almost anything ever uploaded to the internet. Some
185options could be:
186- A walkthrough for the level you were stuck on.
187- A fan site dedicated to your favorite TV show.
188- A forum with 12 members arguing about phreaking.
189- A Flash game that somehow consumed your entire afternoon.
190- Someone's personal blog documenting their life in excruciating detail.
191
192More than this, the internet always felt *enormous* at this stage. No matter how
193much you explored, searched, or cataloged, you never had the full image. The
194internet was endless, borderless, and expansive. There was always a new rabbit
195hole waiting for you. Even if you had to watch every image slowly appear one
196horizontal line at a time.
197
198Before moving on to the next section, do you remember the [[https://www.spacejam.com/1996/][1996 Space Jam
199website]]? What a modern marvel. Honestly one of the world's wonders.
200
201* 2007: Living There
202
203Here we are. The part of this post I recall most vividly. The mid-2000s were a
204phenomenal time in my personal history, as they were my transformative years. As
205it relates to computing and the internet, this means that the mid-2000s were the
206years of my utmost exploration, exploitation, and emancipation.
207
208Where do I even start? Perhaps we start with the state of the internet and what
209exactly was available online. Perhaps this is triggering for certain readers,
210and I apologize if it is, but it is the way the internet was at the time.
211
212If you wanted to see gruesome videos of executions, suicides, or the pain
213olympics, all it took was a single search and your search engine would happily
214return any results relevant to the words you typed.
215
216If you wanted to share information over the internet at this point, you probably
217had an email from a site like AOL, Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, or your ISP
218(Roadrunner, anyone?). Additionally, at this point, webmail clients were
219extremely popular and most users would launch the webmail clients from their
220providers to participate in email.
221
222Those of us who were /cool/ used things like MSN Messenger, AIM, etc. to chat
223quickly without having to use an email. You could even use little pictures that
224provided emotional reactions for you! Oh my goodness, what a time.
225
226#+caption: MSN Messenger Emoticons
227[[https://img.cleberg.net/blog/20260627-internet/msn_emojis.webp]]
228
229Beyond chatting, the next big thing coming in the digital space was gaming. At
230this time, it was seen as perhaps a silly side-hobby for some. While there may
231have been some money in it for a few select games, most were not profitable -
232they were created for other reasons, such as genuine intrigue in mechanics,
233users' fun, and curiosity.
234
235Games and game companies like [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RuneScape][Runescape]], [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miniclip][Miniclip]] (8 Ball Pool, Agar.io, Doodle
236Army), [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Club_Penguin][Club Penguin]], [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wizard101][Wizards 101]], and more dominated the scene in the mid-2000s.
237
238Beyond gaming, this was the age of users learning how to launch their own blogs,
239vlogs, websites, and more.
240
241For example, let's look at [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeoCities][GeoCities]] (1994-2009) and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tumblr][Tumblr]] (2007-present).
242These websites rapidly evolved the internet's landscape, as they offered a free
243method for anyone to deploy a website or blog.
244
245Imagine being a young person, or a high schooler, or a college student, or an
246adult in 2009. You have access to the internet and an interest in /something/ out
247there in the world. You do a quick search and find a page related to it on
248GeoCities or Tumblr, leading you down a hyperlink rabbit hole.
249
250If you were properly motivated at this time, you may wonder: "How do I do this?
251Can I create a page like this?" The answer was yes, and it was easy! A few
252minutes later, you could have your own site. There were few, if any,
253restrictions on what you could publish online.
254
255This could lead you to learning HTML and CSS, as many users wanted to customize
256their sites, which generally leads to users discovering the freedom of owning
257their own sites. This included things like mail signatures, avatars,
258forum-specific usernames and more.
259
260The end result? Everyone could have their own corner of the internet.
261
262There was space for everyone and it was distinct. You could tell, both visually
263and otherwise, that a site belonged to someone specific. It was property,
264individually owned and updated by a human somewhere on Earth.
265
266* 2012: When Everything Started Changing
267
268Let's jump forward to the early/mid-2010s. I used 2012 as an example because
269that's when I was in my first year of high school. At this time, you begin to
270understand a bit more about the world, log more long-term memories in the brain,
271and shift your perspectives.
272
273Let's start by creating a perspective of the world's technology at this time:
274- The iPhone 5 was released.
275- The first iPad Mini was released.
276- The Wii U was released.
277- Windows 8 & macOS Mountain Lion were the primary operating systems.
278- YouTube, Tinder, & Vine ruled the digital landscape.
279  - Perhaps you even watched Gangnam Style on YouTube this year.
280
281At this time, Facebook continued to cannibalize the internet. Each year,
282including 2012, Facebook consumed pages and converted websites into pages on
283their own website. Games, the app center, mobile apps, "pokes", and more slowly
284replaced other websites and communities on the web.
285
286/Twitter did the same thing around this time, to a lesser effect./
287
288As part of this domination by the top web service providers, apps started
289quickly replacing URLs. It felt as if apps became a first-class citizen of the
290digital world and that they may actually be *more* preferential to launching a
291web-first service.
292
293Paired with this app-first and centralized web was a preference for *algorithms*
294(/everyone shudder together/) which used data about a user to determine a precise
295factor of content for a user. Who cares about privacy at this point, right?
296Let's just mine the data, build the features, make our money, and figure the
297rest out later.
298
299At the end of all this is a world where more users than ever are carrying
300smartphones, using apps over websites, using algorithms to find content, and
301circling around the socially-rewarding locations of the digital universe.
302
303Personally... this felt like the beginning of the end. There was a short period
304in the mid-2000s to the 2010s where these apps were truly rewarding and
305valuable. They brought people together and we shared knowledge faster than ever.
306
307However, there was a dark side to this revolution. As these apps progressed, and
308the underlying technologies progressed, the companies and investors driving
309these efforts took a turn. Efforts pushed into the world of micro-transactions,
310psychological rewards for utilizing a platform, profits over value, and a slow
311descent into a disregard for the users.
312
313To me, that 2012 era was a turning point. You may personally love a different
314era (1980/1990s gamer, anyone? Any former phreaks out there?), but to me, it
315felt like we kept making leaps in technological capability until we reached the
316point of economic profitability in the 2000s-2010s era, where corporations,
317investors, and governments took a serious interest in controlling the internet.
318
319From here on out, the digital landscape seems to have a more sinister appearance
320and effect on us.
321
322* 2026: Logging On Today
323
324Fast forward to today: 2026. You want to check the latest headlines in your browser (a simple task!):
325
3261. Turn on your computer - most likely Windows 10 or 11.
3272. The computer nags you for updates.
3283. Windows has installed more games and ad-infested apps you don't want.
3294. Windows then advertises these new "features" to you via notifications.
3305. You open your default browser - most likely Chrome.
3316. When you do so, Edge nags you and asks if you want to switch to Edge?
3327. The homepage of your browser is littered with ads, promotions, and other
333   distractions.
3348. You start typing the URL of your favorite news site or searching for it - *but
335   wait*, your browser has some "recommendations" first, which seem like
336   thinly-veiled advertisements.
3379. If you searched instead of typing the URL directly, your browser (most likely
338   Google) will show you an AI summary loosely related to your search but not
339   really what you were looking for. Somewhere in the distance, a tree
340   wilts.
34110. Below the AI "summary", which somehow takes half of the page space, results
342    are loaded. However, the top 3-5 are promoted results, which means they may
343    or may not relate to your search but someone paid to have them included.
34411. *FINALLY*, below all of that, will be the "real" results. These have been
345    predetermined by Google's search algorithm. At this point, you'd suspect it
346    would be consistent or at least transparent, right? Wrong. It's a black
347    box - don't ask any more questions.
34812. You may click one, or maybe thirty, results before you find what you're
349    looking for.
35013. Great, a website with a real answer. But wait! You're not trustworthy
351    because you haven't accepted every cookie and tracking beacon in the last
352    decade. Therefore, you will have to solve a captcha that requires 13
353    iterations of clicking the "fastest animal" in an array of images, or worse,
354    bikes in various countries.
35514. Once you solve all that, there's a cookie banner waiting for you that gives
356    you two options:
357    1. Agree to all tracking (without seeing any information).
358    2. Or, "see more", where you will be presented with somewhere around 20
359       toggles to limit "legitimate interest" third-parties in the numbers of
360       the hundreds to thousands, or be ignorant and just accept all.
361    3. If you don't wish to spend a week of human time reading the agreements of
362       these various parties, you will eventually lose hope and click whichever
363       button lets you access the website.
36415. Phew. Finally. We're on the site itself. *Oh wait* - another AI summary and
365    maybe even an AI voice/podcast-style version of the article first? And it's
366    the latest feature, so of course you'll be nagged to try it out.
36716. Oh wait, you're interrupted again. This site requires age verification to
368    view its contents. For some reason, another country's laws apply to you
369    right now (spare me the legalese in your responses). Therefore, you will
370    need to create an account, giving this company personal data again, and then
371    upload your national ID or other identification to prove who you are.
37217. Whoo! What an easy process that would inspire you to visit again. At this
373    point, you can view the latest news article on the topic you were searching
374    for. Unfortunately, this site is owned by the same group of people who own
375    basically all news sites - ensuring you are reading the exact viewpoints
376    they are looking to communicate.
377
378What's the common theme here? There's an expectation on us at every single
379step - proof of identification, proof of humanity, testing of their new
380features, consumption of their views, etc., etc., etc.
381
382Pause too long on an ad because you're doing something in real life? Dang, seems
383like someone online made an impression on you and you will be shown that content
384religiously for months.
385
386We are rarely, if ever, allowed to freely roam and consume content we search for
387or type in. There are innumerable layers of intermediaries impeding our digital
388navigation. At each step, you may feel as if there's another party extracting
389commercial value from your visit, your clicks, your eyes, your mouse, or your
390scrolls.
391
392* The Internet I Miss
393
394I'm going to yell at clouds now. Be prepared.
395
396I miss the /old/ web, the indie web. Where websites were authored by humans, even
397in some capacity underneath a corporation.
398
399We had rudimentary tools to solve the riddle of discovery, but they were tools
400nonetheless. Want to discover and explore new sites? You had search options,
401such as early Google or Jeeves, or third-party tools. We had web rings,
402blogrolls, link lists, and other manually-curated pages to discover top-tier
403content.
404
405We dealt with slow speeds, lack of early web security, and strangers because the
406internet offered so much opportunity. Over time, that opportunity has shrunk
407drastically and the cost of visiting the internet has both become mandatory, yet
408more expensive.
409
410Finally, /no one/ owned the internet. Sure, we can get into semantics of the DNS
411system and infrastructure, but the web - and specifically, content - quickly
412became decentralized after the early stages until the recent centralization of
413content.
414
415I just miss being able to visit the web, find personal content from fellow
416internet explorers, and not spend the whole time avoiding the pitfalls of the
417modern web.
418
419* Closing
420
421As I wrote this post, I went through many thoughts and emotions. One thought was
422that the internet, as we knew it, disappeared. However, I don't think it did.
423Rather, the experience of the internet disappeared.
424
425I certainly don't want to go back to 2005, I just hope we don't lose the parts
426that made it feel worth exploring.