LOTS of animated GIFs

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I love reminiscing about the earlier and much simpler days of the internet, to see how it shaped me and my life experiences. I was barely a toddler when AOL officially launched its subscription service in 1993, but it wasn't long before I started using it on our family's computer to connect with friends and browse original meme sites like eBaumsworld.com.

It was so different then. By no means a part of the average daily routine for a kid my age. It was a nice pastime, got online just for fun. I couldn't even do that much when I first started using the internet later on in elementary school, but my internet usage really ramped up during my middle school years thanks to AIM.

I have a very vivid memory of my dad sitting at the computer with me, helping me set up my AIM account with a username and password. I think my dad came up with my first username, it was something to do with Tweety Bird and my birthday probably. And I remember using it for a little bit, but then feeling like it was too baby-like, and I wanted to change it to something more like what my friends were using. I think it's actually kind of a sad moment because I consider this a clear example of when I started to stray away from just being myself, and started trying to be "cool".

So I have bittersweet memories of those days. I'm grateful to be able to say that I was around before the internet as we know it today existed because it keeps me grounded in certain ways. And it was so neat to see, and experience firsthand, the evolution of the internet. On the flipside, I sometimes wonder how different my life would have been without the influence or the peer pressure of AIM. I don't have any regrets, all good life lessons, no matter the cringe-factor, but I do hope to empower new generations of users to use the internet responsibly.

What I look back on most fondly is the way the internet allowed me to bond with my older brothers in such a way that likely would have never happened without it. They're much older than me, all of us experiencing life so differently at any given time. But we were able to connect and make memories over stupid internet memes and content. Our all time favorite, still regularly referenced to this day, is Homestarrunner.com. And so I think I'll wrap this up with a gif that captures one of the early internet's best contributions to modern society: