We all remember our debut on the World Wide Web. On this World Internet Day, we decided to time travel to discover, among the mothballs, the trends, and lost habits of our digital childhood.

Warning: We take no responsibility for any nostalgia caused by this article.

 

1. Customisable cursors

If you have never personalised your cursor, raise your hand. Magic wands, coloured arrows, animals, sounds of birds or frogs when clicking… Anything that would help the browser reflect the user’s personality and style (or lack thereof). The sky was the limit for this trend.

 

2. Archaic emojis

Or should we say “smiles”? XD Vocabulary from when we used to express ourselves ;-D in messages with complicated formulas that involved almost all keyboard keys 8-( and a lot of creativity. ;-P

 

3. Apocalypse of error messages

Do you remember having your screen freeze and hearing the mythical Windows error sound? First a window [pause for suspense], then another and the moment when we knew that everything was lost. A cascade of error windows apocalyptically filling the screen. The solution? Turning off the power.

 

4. Photos that took longer to load than the Mona Lisa to be painted

Coffee break? Could be. Touching up makeup? Could be. Cleaning the keyboard? It could be, but nobody would do it…. Infinite, is that you? Pixel by pixel, line by line, the most anticipated reveal.

 

5. Having to turn off the Internet to use the phone

That feeling when you were finally able to load a website, and our mother needed to use the phone. In the early years of the World Wide Web, the Internet and the telephone did not know how to share and using one compromised the other. Can you imagine the family conflicts?

 

6. Downloads taking longer than the Hundred Years’ War

Starting a download before going to bed (colossal file, like 900 kb) so it would be ready in the morning? The young Internet prepared a whole generation for adult life, educating them in the art of patience and prudence.

 

7. Websites that would play music automatically when you opened them

Ah, we miss the embedded music players on the websites that would automatically play you a random playlist as you enter. Culinary websites. Blogs. Science websites. In the early years of the Internet, music was everywhere.

 

8. Being the coolest on MSN Messenger

Who has never logged out and logged in just to get someone’s attention for your nEw *StaTus? All is fair in love and MSN. With the sound of notifications, overly shortened words, and the possibility of sending a Nudge, Messenger won a special place in everyone’s heart.

 

9. Having your inbox full of chain emails with PowerPoints attached

“Forward this email to 20 of your friends, or you’ll have 7 years of bad luck”, but your friends will be fortunate… unless someone misses heavy PPTs full of kittens and stars GIFs. We don’t judge.

 

10. MySpace’s Top 8

Ah, we miss learning HTML just to change the layout of our profile to a background of cars, flames, and Britney Spears! The MySpace Top8 was one of the highlights of our profiles, allowing us to list our friends in order of preference, causing a lot of drama and destroying many friendships.