For years I borrowed computer time: school, girlfriends, roommates, all contributed to delaying my own purchase of a computer. One girlfriend (1986) had Prodigy, and also dialed up to the university library’s computer, but I never used those things – there really didn’t seem to be anything there.
Finally, in December of 1995, I found myself alone and unemployed with no computer in reach. I had to type résumés, I had to address letters, and I had very poor typing skills. I had to have a computer. I went to a local shop and bought a rebuilt Performa 6110CD – an early PowerMac. It came loaded with ClarisWorks (a primitive little office suite), System 7 (I think), and eWorld, Apple’s proprietary “Internet community.” I bought a Global Village 28.8K external modem (the fastest around, at the time), started the software, and selected a screen name. The world opened up.
As far as I can tell, it was running AOL underneath – it had the same welcome, mail, and splash screen routines, but the esthetics were vastly different. Instead of AOL’s bullying baritone was a pleasant alto. Instead of a forest of garish buttons, eWorld’s welcome screen looked like a small town, with each area represented by a building – a town hall for headquarters functions, an auditorium for entertainment and presentation, a little schoolhouse for educational materia. I may have some of these details wrong – it’s been a long time-- but one thing I remember clearly is the little red mail truck that would pull up to the town hall when email came in.
I also remember that, like AOL, eWorld had chatrooms. Unlike AOL, there weren’t too many rooms to count, too many to sort through, and too many to find like-minded people. I settled in with a group of friends who rejoiced when I found a job, laughed at my jokes, and said hello when I entered the room. I had a brief fling with one (didn’t end well, but so it goes).
When eWorld shut down in March 1996, a mere three months after I joined, there was a tearful farewell, and many eWorlders, including me, accepted a discount offer to join AOL. I once again built up a group of friends, once again got a sense of community, but it was still AOL, still an enormous sea of faceless strangers, many of whom were rude and obnoxious. The AOL chat room scene has been decried elsewhere, so I won’t waste time with that. When the forum I met most of my friends in was closed (again, in 1996!), I saw little point in staying. (I’m glad i stuck around long enough to meet my wife, though!)
I did research. I bought a book on really using the Internet; I read about Gopher, and Archie, and anArchie, and WAIS, and Mosaic and the World Wide Web. It came with a bunch of free software, including the all-important PPP and TCP/IP. I installed all the necessary software and hunted down a local ISP that seemed to have good recommendations, but by the time I went to sign up with them, they were part of Earthlink. I went ahead and signed up, dropping my AOL membership like a bad habit (which it was, come to think of it).
My life has changed a lot since then; I have moved twice,gotten married, bought a house, and had a son. I’ve made new friends and lost touch with old ones. But I still use the same name I used back in 1995.
oh yeah, it kinda sucked!