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When the Internet Came Home

2018-12-11 · letter vlog · John · 3:27 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Internet & YouTube · mode: Personal essay · tags: fundraising ask, calendar ritual, community lore

John recalls the internet arriving at his home in the early 1990s: green text, a CompuServe forum that gave him friends and his first love, and free access as a moderator; now feeling its downsides, he says the Project for Awesome reminded him of the internet at its best: we can do more together than alone.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — The internet arrives in a box; Dad shows Beijing's weather, the Apology of Socrates and a French forum

  • ★★★ When the internet first came to John's house in the early 1990s, it seemed to live inside a box; once his dad got it working, it was green letters on a black screen. (hedged) — 00:00:03 · Mike Green
  • ★★ John's dad showed him what the internet could do, like the current weather in Beijing or downloading the Apology of Socrates for free. — 00:00:13 · Mike Green
  • ★★ John calls it one of the weird solipsisms of US life that the news almost never mentions weather outside the United States unless there is a natural disaster. — 00:00:29 · United States
  • ★ John grants it is cool the Apology of Socrates is free to anyone online, but to 13-year-old him all of that was just stupid. (playful) — 00:00:38
  • ★★ His dad then showed him that on the internet you could talk to people, pointing him to a French forum so he could practice his French. — 00:00:46 · Mike Green

00:00:58 — The English-language forum: friends, first love, CompuServe email, hourly charges, the moderating job and the summer of CompuServe; not waxing nostalgic

  • ★★★ John found an English-language version of the service, which changed his life: he made friends, including many of the most important friendships of his childhood. — 00:00:58
  • ★★★ Online John met a girl he eventually fell in love with and dated for most of college; when they first met in person, neither had ever seen a picture of the other. — 00:01:08
  • ★ John got an email address, a series of random digits at CompuServe.com. — 00:01:22
  • ★★ The internet then charged by the hour; John wanted many hours, and his parents, though supportive, needed to pay the mortgage and told him to cut back. — 00:01:27
  • ★★★ CompuServe hired John, always in its student forum, as a moderator, meaning he got free internet; it taught him a little about online community building. (playful) — 00:01:40

  • ★★ John calls his first summer online the summer of CompuServe, joking that if anything happened to him outdoors that summer he does not recall it; lacking the physical vigor for exploration, he felt the magic of discovery uncovering every wonder and terror on the internet. (playful) — 00:01:58

    “the summer of CompuServe”

  • ★★★ John doesn't want to wax nostalgic: that internet had all the problems of today's, on a smaller scale. — 00:02:17

00:02:26 — What that internet gave him; its downsides now; the P4A as the best of the internet; sign-off

  • ★★★ John's point is only that he loved that internet: it gave him friends when he really needed them, he fell in love, and he found out Beijing had weather. — 00:02:26
  • ★★★ After drinking from the internet's fire hose for more than 25 years, John has begun to feel more of its negative side effects. — 00:02:34
  • ★★ Unsure whether it is his age or the internet now travelling with him everywhere, John increasingly finds himself reading Wordsworth's 'The world is too much with us'. (unsure) — 00:02:41
  • ★★★ John says this year's (2018) Project for Awesome has raised more than $1.5 million for charity, and the fundraiser is still up. — 00:02:55 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★★ John says viewers can donate at projectforawesome.com/donate until midnight tonight and get great perks. — 00:03:02 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★★ The P4A weekend reminded John how the best of the internet feels; he felt grateful to be part of a vibrant, joyous community working together to make the world suck less. — 00:03:08 · Project for Awesome, Nerdfighteria, world suck
  • ★★★ John says what he loves about the internet is also what he fears about it: we can do so much more together than alone. — 00:03:21

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: CompuServe · Project for Awesome

Also: People: Mike Green · William Wordsworth

Works: Apology (Plato) · The World Is Too Much with Us

Terms: world suck

Concepts: English language · nostalgia · online community

Places: Beijing · United States

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