Chanelle (00:02): Ready? What is your name?

Jill  (00:07): Jill Davis.

 Chanelle   (00:08): And how old are you? 

Jill (00:10): 74. 

Chanelle (00:12): How old were you when you first got your very first computer?

 Jill (00:16): It was probably early 1990s. 

Chanelle (00:22): And how old were you? 40. What were your feelings when you got the computer 

Jill (00:32): Excited. High technology, very different from just the typewriter and looking up and using the encyclopedia for information. Had the whole worldwide web at your fingertips. 

Chanelle (00:50): And what was one thing that the computer brought to your life that you didn't have before? 

Jill (00:55): I guess that would be it. Worldwide web. You could look up anything and everything and you could do games on it, you could do research, you could do just about anything you wanted to do and that was terrific. 

Chanelle (01:13): What was one thing that you were excited about when you got your first computer? 

Jill (01:19): Well, getting rid of the typewriter because we didn't need the typewriter anymore. And making corrections were a lot easier to backspace and then type and that instead of using a white out to white out your mistake, I guess that would be it. The main thing. 

Chanelle (01:43): What did you use your computer for? 

Jill (01:47): I worked on a couple speeches that I had to do. I also was into doing events, so doing the flyers and doing printing out posters and using print shop, it was really a lot easier than what I had done by hand before. 

Chanelle (02:13): How is your computer usage different from back then compared to today? 

Jill (02:20): Oh, well unfortunately I'm retired now, so I don't do many speeches or too many events anymore. I use it mostly for emails, searches, I use ai of course now the cell phone is Zoom. You could zoom. The technology has come so far and I can't wait to see what happens in the future. 

Chanelle (02:53): Did you use your computer for work, social or recreational use more when you first got it. 

Jill (03:01): Some work, mostly social, like I said, with events that I was in charge of and making flyers that would. 

Chanelle (03:17): How many people in your household used the computer? 

Jill (03:22): Four. 

Chanelle (03:23): And how many people were in your household? 

Jill (03:25): Four. 

Chanelle (03:27): Did everyone have a computer? 

Jill (03:31): They were just getting computers. It was interesting. We were probably one of the first on the block, let's say, to get a home pc. 

Chanelle (03:44): And how did that affect relationships? Did everyone want to go to your house? 

Jill (03:48): The kids, well, the kids wanted their friends to come over, so we had to be careful on what they were searching on the worldwide web. But yeah, our house was the house to come and get on the computer. 

Jill (04:11): Probably around that time, 1990s, early 1990s. Shortly after we got ours. It was just becoming popular. 

Chanelle (04:22): Is there anything else you would like to add? 

Jill  (04:24): I guess I would, because when I was in high school in the sixties, latter sixties, we had a key punch class. So we had to key punch cards that went into the mainframe, which is the computer back then. And you had to be very careful, keep punch cards had to be in order. That was the program we were putting into the mainframe. So it's a lot different than it is now, I think. And it's come a long way and it's so much easier. And that's all. 

Chanelle (04:56): Thank you.

Note: Jerry requested to re-film his storytelling bit as he didn't like his first attempt, thus there are two interview clips.

Jerry Interview (long clip)

McClairin (00:02):

Okay. Question one. What is your name?

Jerry (00:09):

Jerry.

McClairin (00:10):

How old are you?

Jerry (00:11):

60.

McClairin (00:12):

Tell me a little bit about yourself.

Jerry (00:14):

Well, I'm retired from trucking and I'm just kind of a outdoors type person. I enjoy yard work and just enjoying life

McClairin (00:32):

Today, How often do you use the internet?

Jerry (00:36):

I had say on a regular basis about every day, probably several times a day.

McClairin (00:42):

And today, how do you typically access the internet?

Jerry (00:46):

Mostly with my phone.

McClairin (00:47):

And do you have an iPhone?

Jerry (00:49):

I do, yes.

McClairin (00:51):

When you use your phone to access the internet, what does that usage usually look like? Are you on Google, are you on social media? A little bit of both.

Jerry (01:01):

I would say 50 50, A little of both.

 McClairin (01:05):

Okay. Do you remember your first time accessing the internet?

Jerry (01:09):

I do.

McClairin (01:11):

How old were you when you first accessed the internet?

Jerry (01:14):

Probably 33, 34.

McClairin (01:18):

So can you tell us a little bit about that time you accessed the internet for the first time?

Jerry (01:22):

Yes. We had, my wife and I had bought a laptop. It was our first home computer, oh, excuse me, not a laptop, a desktop. It was our first computer and I had never used a computer before, of course, but it was a learning experience. It was dial up connection, which took forever and was extremely slow.

McClairin (01:51):

What was it like the first time you accessed the internet? What did it look like? What did it feel like?

Jerry  (01:56):

Well, as far as looks, I mean, I guess it was, I didn't know what to expect and I thought it was very interesting that there was that much information available in one place.

McClairin (02:17):

What did the computer you used to access the internet look like?

Jerry (02:21):

Well, like I say, it was a desktop. The monitor was quite big. And you had your hard drive and your modem, a keyboard with a separate mouse.

McClairin (02:36):

Was it boxy?

Jerry (02:37):

Very boxy.

McClairin (02:38):

Was it heavy?

Jerry  (02:39):

Very heavy.

McClairin (02:40):

So very different than our computers today. 

Jerry (02:42):

Oh, Absolutely.

McClairin (02:45):

Where were you when you first accessed the internet? Were you at home or at work or somewhere else

Jerry  (02:50):

At home.

McClairin (02:54):

What did the specific areas of the internet that you went to look like? Were they super bare? Did it look exactly like it does today?

Jerry  (03:03):

A lot like what you see today, a lot less, I want to say advertising type popups and stuff, but from memory, pretty much what I'm looking at today.

McClairin (03:17):

When you first accessed the internet, what were your initial thoughts on what you were seeing?

Jerry  (03:26):

I was kind of a little bit blown away. Once again, to say that there was just a lot of stuff at your fingertips that in the past you kind had to dig deeper for.

McClairin (03:40):

How did you connect to the internet? You mentioned earlier that you used dial up, but what specifically did that kind of look like?

Jerry (03:49):

Well, you would go in and log into the computer system, and if memory serves you actually, of course it was through your landline of your home, but you had to have a service that I think we paid monthly to be able to call in to the internet. And like I say, it was slow, didn't mean you were going to get in every time you tried. A lot of times it was multiple attempts just to get online.

McClairin (04:20):

So there was kind of like a waiting period it sounds like, where you had to wait to get on.

Jerry (04:24):

Yes. It's not like now where it's just you hit a button, you're there.

McClairin (04:29):

So as far as barriers to getting online, was there any that you knew of cost? Was it super expensive or was it not super duper available at this time? What did that kind look like?

Jerry  (04:41):

I think availability had a lot to do. It was not as we see it now and cost was not, I want to say maybe we paid like 9 95 a month for the service to be able to connect to the internet through our landline.

McClairin (05:01):

Do you remember how much the computer was?

Jerry (05:04):

Gosh, I want to say our first home computer, we probably paid, I want to say around $1,200 for it.

McClairin (05:16):

When you first accessed the internet, do you remember thinking that it would change society as dramatically as it has today?

Jerry  (05:24):

No.

McClairin (05:25):

What did you think about it?

Jerry  (05:26):

Well, I thought it was a new tool, a new resource for information, but I kind of thought of it as just my kind of more of modern newspaper dictionary, tv, yellow pages. Of course.

McClairin (05:44):

You didn't really see social media coming?

Jerry (05:46):

No, I did not.

McClairin (05:48):

Okay. At the time when you accessed the internet, how many people did you know that also had access to the internet?

Jerry (05:56):

Probably maybe that I had actually talked to about it and knew maybe five, six people.

McClairin (06:06):

So it wasn't like a widespread thing, you and your friends?

Jerry (06:08):

No.

McClairin (06:11):

When you accessed the internet, were there any sites that you just vividly really stick out in your mind using emails or chat rooms?

Jerry  (06:23):

The main thing I remember looking at was the stock market, not necessarily that I could keep an eye on my account, but it was interesting to me for what the stock market had done that day. And I could see, like I say, not necessarily what my account or my investments were doing, but I could see what the overall market had done that day. And the individual companies.

McClairin (06:52):

How did your work and your daily life start to change with the internet?

Jerry (06:59):

As far as my work, I personally didn't see a big change right away. Now with my personal life, it just made things more available. And I may be jumping ahead a little bit here, but you didn't have to look as hard to find what you needed. I mean, there was pre-internet and it's gotten to the point now where anything you're looking for is just a click away.

McClairin (07:38):

The stuff that you were looking for, it was easier to find, but could you find it as quickly as you can today or was there still a digging and waiting element?

Jerry  (07:49):

No, there was still a digging and waiting because of course there was not sites, there wasn't as many there. I want to say it's probably flooded now. You could find it, but there was still the digging part.

McClairin (08:09):

So how did you and people in your personal life communicate before the internet, and then how did that shift with the arrival and growth of the internet?

Jerry  (08:20):

Well, we communicated either mostly by telephone or in person. There was the resources. I don't think the resources were there other than those two options maybe I was in the trucking industry. The CB radio came along in the seventies, and that was just a communication tool kind of maybe like the cell phone is today.

McClairin (08:59):

Did you notice a shift in that communication after the internet? Once the internet arrived, cell phones arrived to your work? Was there an immediate ease or something that happened in your industry specifically?

Jerry (09:17):

Yeah, it definitely changed our industry. I remember probably somewhere late nineties, I was a city driver. We had to communicate with our dispatch multiple times a day. And the only way we could do that is through a telephone, which was a landline. So the first pagers we got at work were just like a beeper. It would beep. And when it beeped, you knew to call your dispatch. That progressed into a pager that would actually read out to you through a little screen on the top what they wanted you to do, where they wanted you to go pick up or what they needed you to do. And that progressed into a Nextel phone, which was a direct walkie talkie type phone that we could communicate by just pushing one button. But not only could we communicate just with the dispatcher, every driver that ran out of the facility that I worked out of, I could communicate directly with them as well, which was a huge time saver on all parts. And if you dispatcher needed, you didn't have to stop and hunt a phone, he could just immediately contact you.

McClairin (10:47):

Do you remember how the internet changed news, entertainment or shopping?

Jerry  (10:54):

Oh yeah. I mean, you look at the news. I mean, you read the newspaper, I would read the newspaper or you watch the evening or morning. Well, then there wasn't even morning news. You had the six o'clock and 11 o'clock news and those were your main news sources other than the radio all of a sudden, and once again, I don't want to jump ahead of myself, but when the cell phone came along and the internet connection with that, I mean everything. I mean, if there was a wildfire in California, you may not hear about it for a day or two. Well now it's instantly, or say if there's a death of someone famous or a celebrity, we know instantaneously it may be a day or two before you even knew about it. So as far as the news resource, resource and everything just became more available quicker.

McClairin  (11:59):

What about shopping? I'm really interested in that one.

Jerry (12:03):

Well, shopping, especially when Amazon came along, of course, I'm a little bit more, I'm still kind of hands on. I like to go to the store and get what I need, especially like clothes. I mean, I like to try my clothes on. But yeah, I mean Amazon, I mean, it is just unbelievable how anything I'm looking for you just type it in and you just have multiple options immediately. Quick delivery time, even outside of Amazon. I mean, anything that I want that, whether it be eBay, I mean you search what you're looking for and you, it's there.

(12:53):

Talking about eBay, I'm a bit of a collector. I enjoy collecting things. Well before the internet, I was at the mercy of just what you could locate when you were out, say at antique stores, so to speak. Now I really like gumball machines, vintage gumball machines. Now not only can you search, Hey, I'm looking for a 1930s bluebird gumball machine, well then you're going to have everyone that's available pop up and the prices fluctuate. I mean, so instead of saying, Hey, this is the only one I can find at an antique store, now you can find 10 and there'll be 10 different prices. So from that aspect, yes, I love that part of it. And that has really changed a lot is just, once again, it's at your fingertips.

McClairin  (13:58):

This is my last question for you, but how has the internet changed your personal life in the long term?

Jerry  (14:06):

Well, my personal life is, I've never been a big TV watcher, and especially now this time of my life, I just don't find a lot of entertainment in tv. So in my free time and my evenings and stuff, I'll stroll the internet, whether it be just social media, keeping up with the people I know from the past, keeping an eye on my daughter at college through Life 360, and I don't spend a lot of time. It is a lot of my pastime where it used to be maybe TV in the evenings, I just get more out of seeing what other people are doing and what's going on in the world. I look at a lot of news. I read a lot of, I really enjoy the fact that there's so much information available now in investments and stock markets and the economy and give and take.

(15:15):

I a lot of the lots of different opinions out there and it's always nice to know what everybody's thinking. Of course, a lot of it, we don't know what's true and not, but it's just, it's changed my life. And for one of my biggest things is Facebook marketplace. I love just strolling through that. I can do it for hours, not necessarily looking for anything. Just seeing what people are selling because you may say, Hey, this is a great deal. And there's been times that I've bought stuff that I did not need. I knew it was a great deal. I pick it up, I resell it for a profit. And that's been a lot of my time with the technology and the internet. And of course, like the phone now, if anything happens, like my daughter at college needs money and it's just the phone call where it used to be. Dad's not at home. I got to keep calling until I can catch him. Your car breaks down. You don't have to go walk and find a payphone. You hit your phone and you got help. So a lot of good things has come from it. 

McClairin

Thank you. 

Jerry 

Oh, you're welcome. Thank you.

Jerry (Shorter Interview Clip- Story Re-take)

McClairin  (00:05):

Do you remember your first time accessing the internet? 

Jerry 

I do. It was probably, I'm going to say around 97, maybe 98, I can't remember exactly. I know it was late nineties. We had just first desktop computer we had gotten for our home, my wife and I, and I remember it was big, it was bulky. There was a lot to it. The first time I remember logging into it, we had, they was called dial up. It would come through your landline on your telephone, and I remember we paid for a service. I don't think it was really that expensive, maybe 9 95 a month or something that you could actually log into the internet through your phone line. But it's very slow. I mean, it would take multiple times to get in and get online, and it was not unusual to get kicked off several times while you were actually online just because of the, and very slow. I mean, it just would take forever. But yeah, I mean, my first experience of, I had a few friends that had it and they were like, Hey, this is really cool. You need to check this out. You can find about anything you're looking for.

(01:39):

And my wife, she was going back to school to get her master's degree, so that was another reason for us to get a home computer and internet. And so we got one. And yeah, my first experience is I like to log in the evenings and check the stock market, what the market had done that day, what was out there, totally different from what you see today. Then basically the information you would get is what the market had done that day. A little bit about the history, kind about what you would get out of the newspaper. They used to print it in the paper every day.

(02:29):

You could see your individual stocks you held, but really just what they were performing at it that day and a little bit of history on it were like, now when I log in, it's a whole different, it's got all of my personal information as far as what I hold, what I paid, what it's up to, if I'm up or down, very basic in the beginning, just very basic. Nothing like what we experience now, and yeah. Then a lot of stuff that I look at now, like social media, whether it be Facebook, TikTok, that wasn't really there then it was more of a tool, I guess to say, maybe your investments or your banking or my wife used it for her school, but just totally different from what we see today with so much available to us. And as far as the internet, at that time, I had no idea what it would lead and be.

(03:53):

Now, like I say, once again, when you talk about Facebook and keeping up with things and people and just everything's available where then it was just a very basic tool. 

McClairin

Do you know what model of computer you guys got? 

Jerry 

I remember it was a Hewlett packer, but I have no idea of the model. It was just a basic tabletop, a home computer. You bought it as a package. It come with about six different boxes and enough wires to scare an electrician to death and nothing like now you flip your new laptop open, you push a few buttons and you're up and running. No wires. No wires, no. You were plugging in, you were hooking this wire to this machine and this wire went to this. And you had had a monitor. You had a, I guess it was the hard drive, the modem, the keyboard. It had a separate mouse. All that had to be connected to each other by wires.

(05:10):

And so yeah, it was quite, the machinery kind of took up a corner of a bedroom. Actually no. Carrying it to class. No, no. You were not carrying that one to class.

McClairin 

 I'm trying to think if there's anything else. Can you say, I'm going to say thank you and I'm just going to get you to do like, oh, thank you. Well, thank you so much for letting me interview you today. 

Jerry 

Oh, yeah. I hope I helped. If it helps any, I'm still not high tech today. I still pay my bills out of a checkbook, but there's a lot of good things that the Internet's brought. I enjoy it. But yeah. Hey, I appreciate you asking, and I hope this helped.

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:39:06

Sidney

Okay. I'm going to start off by asking you your name, how old you are, and a little bit about yourself. 

Kristi

Okay. My name is Christy Rhine, and I'm about two and a half weeks away from being 50 years old. And I am a health and physical education teacher in my 25th year, teaching. And I have a family of three kids, one who's about to graduate from Georgia Tech, one at Furman, and, an almost 16 year old in high school with her.

00:00:39:06 - 00:01:08:18

Sidney

But, how often do you typically use the internet today?

Kristi

 I'm on the internet all day, every day. All, all my class material is in a digital platform. So all my classes receive instruction from that digital platform. So, I mean, I, I taught, three different classes at an hour and a half each today. And I would say for half that time we were on the internet.

00:01:08:20 - 00:01:38:15

Sidney

And then, like in your personal life as well. 

Kristi

Yeah. I mean, yeah, nowadays, it's, you know, phone, it's the phone and apps and things like that. I would say maybe an hour to two hours a day total. Okay. 

Sidney

Do you remember the first time you access the internet?

Kristi

 I cannot remember the exact time. No.

00:01:38:17 - 00:02:03:21

Unknown

But, Oh, gosh. Like, when I think about, when it became more regular, it was like, halfway through college. And I attended college from 1993 to 1997. And I didn't have my own computer or laptop. You would have to go to a computer lab. And I just have memories of stopping at a computer lab after eating in the cafeteria.

00:02:03:21 - 00:02:29:14

Unknown

There was always a line to use it, and that's when I first created an email, and I would check email. So, yeah, it definitely happened in college because I think I was thinking back to my senior year in high school, which was 1992, 1993, and I remember still doing my senior thesis on an electric typewriter and doing all my research from books in the library.

00:02:29:16 - 00:02:56:20

And I still did most of my research in college from books in a library. I didn't really start using the internet, like, as a search engine and things like that until probably the very end of college. Beginning of grad school. 97, 98 and 99. 

Sidney 

What did like the computer like the first computer that you used to look like, 

Kristi

like, just an archaic desktop.

00:02:56:20 - 00:03:23:06

And that was real bulky and, like, squared off everywhere, but like a big, like, hard drive floppy disks. Yeah. And then it was like AOL. It was like, who's got mail? Like you would literally wait for, especially at home, because I remember going home for the summer in college from college and, you know, you're sitting there and it would take a good 30 seconds.

00:03:23:06 - 00:03:48:05

You would hear the the dial tone and the connect. So, yeah, I mean, I can't like I don't think I even had a laptop of my own in grad school. Yep. I was still going to computer labs. 

Sidney

And what were your, like, thoughts of the AOL dial up? 

Kristi

Oh, I mean, like, at the time, it was awesome.

00:03:48:06 - 00:04:10:23

It was like, oh, cool. I can, I can communicate, you know, over the internet. And it just like I never forget trying to explain it to my grandmother at the time who just like, I mean, I used to write her letters all the time, and now sending her emails and just trying to get her to understand it.

00:04:11:00 - 00:04:32:09

Unknown

So, yeah, the time was great. And now you think back on it and you're just like, whoa, that was that was archaic. Almost.

Sidney

 Do you feel like there were any better barriers to getting online, like course knowledge or availability? 

Kristi

Oh, yeah. I mean, like, especially in the beginning, cost was a major one because that was a new expense.

00:04:32:09 - 00:04:57:10

Sidney

Like, that was a new expense that you had to add on to your, like, phone bill. Is that internet dial up? 

Kristi

So, yeah, I mean, cost definitely. And I know that's become better, you know, as the years go by. And then, yeah, you had to educate yourself on, you know, exactly how all of it worked.

00:04:57:12 - 00:05:19:07

Sidney

Do you did you think the internet would change society as dramatically as it did? 

Kristi

Yeah, I think I, I think I did, I think I was like, man, this is going to take the place of research. You know, you're not going to need to buy it. Like, I mean, I, I was the generation that grew up with encyclopedias in the house, and there's no need for that anymore.

00:05:19:09 - 00:05:41:11

Unknown

Just the ease of information now, nowadays with the AI and stuff like that, that's, you know, that's mind boggling. That's hard to wrap my mind around that. I would, I, I didn't predict that, but I did kind of figure, oh, this everything is going to be on the computer from here on out. And then now the computers in our hand with phone and everything.

00:05:41:13 - 00:06:20:16

Sidney

And how many people did you know who had access to the internet at the time, like when you were in college, like you're. 

Kristi

Well, I mean, it's kind of the same way I had access. We were all in the computer labs. You would like even have to sign up for computer lab time. And I remember working, late, you know, all my senior, thesis again and and making sure I had, you know, I had signed up for my prescribed time because it was getting more and more popular, for research and just be in communication.

00:06:20:18 - 00:06:51:12

Sidney

Did you use email, chatrooms or early websites? Which one stand out in your memory?

Kristi

 Email. Email? Definitely. I don't remember using any chatrooms. What was the other one you said? 

Sidney

Early. Just early websites. Like when was the first you logged on to Facebook? 

Kristi 

Oh, I didn't log on to Facebook until 2008. Yeah. Mean it was after you were born.

00:06:51:14 - 00:07:09:15

I didn't really understand what Facebook was. I didn't understand any of those. Like, I was hearing about Myspace and all this stuff, and I had no idea, because I was just using, like, email. AOL was kind of the search engine. I started hearing the word googling, you need to Google this and Google that. And I didn't quite understand that.

00:07:09:15 - 00:07:52:05

Unknown

It took me a little while to catch on to that. But yeah, my main, my main usage was email communication.

Sidney

 And how did work, school or daily life start to change with the internet?

Kristi

 I mean, just like everything just got easier in terms of getting the information you needed. I mean, even navigation, like we were talking the other day about how, you know, before the apps for navigation, you would go to the internet, go to mapquest.com and put in where you were going and then print that out and have that.

00:07:52:05 - 00:08:25:11

So I mean, that was a huge change from having to pull out maps and things like, like regular, like handheld maps. And so yeah, everything just got a little easier and then, you know, then you get your laptop and then the laptop makes, you know, not only finding information, but storing your information and storing photos, and it just, you know, yeah, it like instead of having so many photo albums, you know, photo storage, things like that.

00:08:25:13 - 00:08:54:12

Sidney

And then last one, do you remember how the internet changed news, entertainment or shopping and how did it change your personal life in long term? 

Kristi

Yeah. Love it. I heard the shopping. Shopping changed, I mean drastically, like I love shopping on the internet versus going, going out and doing it physically. Like this huge change there. What was the other oh, like, media.

00:08:54:16 - 00:09:22:24

Oh, yeah. Much more of the 24 hour media coverage. Yeah. You know, when things happen, I mean, you pretty much see videos about it right away. That was not the case back. You know, when I was in high school. College? So, yeah, I mean, just the speed and the amount of information. And now I find myself having to sift through information to figure out what's real and what's not.

00:09:23:01 - 00:09:31:04

And that's a new problem, right? Okay. 

Sidney 

Well. Got it. 

Kristi 

Oh, okay. Good.

Sidney (00:09):

Today, the internet is all around us. It's a part of our academic lives, our social lives, and even our professional lives. It seems the word smart has found its way into every corner of the world, smartphones, smart alarm clocks, and even smart bridges. But despite what some may believe, the internet has not always surrounded us in the way that it does today. In fact, there was a time that the internet didn't even exist

McClairin  (00:35):

And it didn't arrive when Christopher Columbus was sailing the ocean blue, or when the founding fathers signed the Declaration of Independence. The development of the internet started just 56 years ago

Chanelle  (00:46):

With breakthroughs in digital innovation such as transistors, integrated circuits, and microprocessors. The concept of the internet is born. The small advancements paved the way for lands or local area Networks lands were essentially a group of devices connected to each other in one central location such as an office building or home. With the rise of lands, the US government got involved and created RP Net a network for the US military in the late 1969.

Sidney (01:20):

After many years of ANet functioning as a closed network in 1983, ANet adopted TCP/IP protocols that enabled data transmission across networks, which was the foundation of the internet. We know today still network use was limited solely to researchers, engineers, and military personnel.

McClairin (01:41):

However, the creation of modem technology enabled private users to dial into networks from home. Finally, in 1989, the first internet service provider known as the world was created and offered public paid dial-up internet

Chanelle (01:56):

Service. In 1990, ARP pnet became nsfnet, which focused on scientific research and educational information, and in 1995, the internet became purely commercial, which is why the websites today end in .com.

Sidney (02:12):

Finally, in 1994, Tim Burners Lee created the worldwide web, which can be referred to as Web 1.0, which allowed users to access and link information using hypertext and use a browser. This new user-friendly and easily accessible internet led to a user boom.

Jill (02:31):

They were just getting computers. It was interesting, we were probably one of the first on the block, let's say, to get a home PC

McClairin (02:45):

For Jill. The internet began as a tool. She got her first computer in the 1990s as a way to make things easier and faster, but quickly it became more than just that.

Jill  (02:55):

I guess that would be it. Worldwide web, you could look up anything and everything, and you could do games on it. You could do research, you could do just about anything you wanted to do, and that was terrific.

McClairin (03:12):

She describes the feeling as being

Jill (03:15):

Excited, high technology, very different from just the typewriter and looking up and using the encyclopedia for information, had the whole worldwide web at your fingertips.

Chanelle  (03:32):

Now, for Christie, a high school teacher in her 25th year of education, she lives in a connected world now, but remembers the moment it all began.

Kristi (03:40):

I'm on the internet all day every day. All my class material is in a digital platform, so all my classes receive instruction from that digital platform. So I mean, I taught three different classes at an hour and a half each today, and I would say for half that time we were on the internet.

Chanelle (04:05):

Even something as normal as checking an email. It used to be an event.

Kristi (04:08):

I attended college from 1993 to 1997, and I didn't have my own computer or laptop. You would have to go to a computer lab, and I just have memories of stopping at a computer lab after eating in the cafeteria. There was always a line to use it, and that's when I first created an email and I would check email.

Sidney (04:30):

Jerry, a retired truck driver, got online for the first time in late 1990s when a bulky desktop computer sat in the corner of his bedroom.

Jerry (04:40):

I remember it was a Hewlett packer, but I have no idea of the model. It was just a basic tabletop, a home computer. He bought it as a package. It come with about six different boxes and enough wires to scare an electrician to death

Sidney (05:05):

Still. He was fascinated by the information now available at his fingertips.

Jerry (05:10):

I was kind of a little bit blown away. Once again, to say that there was just a lot of stuff at your fingertips that in the past you kind of had to dig deeper. For

McClairin (05:23):

Christie, the internet eventually changed how she planned even the simplest tasks like driving

Krisiti (05:28):

Mapquest.com and put in where you were going and then print that out and have that. So I mean, that was a huge change from having to pull out maps and things like regular handheld maps,

McClairin (05:43):

And many ways the internet has become our main companion. Replacing routines, simplifying tasks, and increasing entertainment.

Jerry (05:51):

It's changed my life and for one of my biggest things is Facebook marketplace. I love just strolling through that. I can do it for hours, not necessarily looking for anything. Just seeing what people are selling,

Jill (06:08):

Doing events, so doing the flyers and doing printing out posters and using print shop. It was really a lot easier than what I had done by hand before

Kristi (06:25):

Shopping changed, I mean, drastically. I love shopping on the internet versus going out and doing it physically, like the huge change there.

Chanelle (06:38):

Web 1.0 would eventually become Web 2.0, and the popularity and widespread use of the internet would only grow. Today. We stand on the cusp of a new internet, one that would not be possible without the stories and experiences that came from those before us.