People have been sharing what they miss the most about the early internet – 17 digital delights from a simpler time
The internet has changed a lot over the years. Today YouTube and TikTok rule the online roost, but this wasn’t always the case.
If you’re old enough, you can likely remember the internet’s dial-up days. Prime_Advocate was curious to hear what people miss about this era, so they put the following question to r/AskReddit:
‘Anyone who surfed the early web between 1995-2010. What’s the one website/app you still think about?’
Dancing baby gifs at the ready, here are the top replies…
1.
‘Flash games. Man, I miss Flash games.’
-The_drunken_Mick-732
2.
‘I miss when the internet felt like a giant playground instead of a handful of apps’
-Separate_Pattern8848
3.
‘MSN Messenger. Nothing since has matched that feeling of logging in and seeing who was online, custom statuses, and random late night chats.’
-SiagoBr
4.
‘Back in the 90s, finding a cool website really felt like a *discovery*. I miss that so much.’
-circuit_cultivator
5.
‘Winamp. The app really whipped the llama’s ass. Half my teenage years were spent downloading skins and organizing MP3s’
-Footbe4rd
6.
‘Stumble upon. It was a plug in for mozilla that randomly took you to a site based on a preselected list of interests and criteria. Could be literally anything sfw.
‘I watched Nausica of the Valley of the Wind for the first time through it. Was great.’
-Be_like_Rudiger
7.
‘Newgrounds.com
‘I was young and you could see nudity in a world were porn sites weren’t as accessible.’
-DifferentMud1010
8.
‘JoeCartoon
‘Albinoblacksheep
‘Homestarrunner
‘HamsterDance
‘Neopets
‘The thing that really sucks about this current iteration of the internet is that now there’s a few big websites and the rest is internet detritus. I miss the wild west days of the internet, when you could find some truly godless shit on a Geocities page with enough grit and determination.’
-UhOhFeministOnReddit
9.
‘I still think about the original disneychannel.com.
‘I used to love all the old games they had there. It was bright, colorful and so obviously just for kids. No DMs, no online purchases, just fun.’
-tsh87