The Internet, a faceless, invisible, ubiquitous network of computers, servers, routers, switches, fiber optic cabling and Ethernet cabling, has become an integral part of modern society. We have data plans on our cell phones that allow us to access it wireless via radio waves that transmit from the nearest tower. We use it at restaurants, grocery stores, gas stations, department stores. We use it to book rides and travel, for online shopping, even for finding a romantic partner. Our smart devices are Internet enabled, our cars, refrigerators, washing machines. It has permeated our workplaces, our schools, and even churches. Yes, even God is on the Internet. (I think He uses the username Da1and0nly@heaven.com). But it wasn't always the bastion of knowledge and information.

Growing up in central, rural South Carolina in the 1980s and 1990s, the Internet was a mere fantasy, an afterthought mostly. My worries of the world were confined to the games I was playing, the sports I were participating in, the books that I was reading, and my church life. Church service was such an integral part of my life that it literally felt like we were in church everyday of the week, especially during Pastor's anniversary/appreciation and church anniversary. So is the life of the son of a church deacon and later associate pastor. Phones were still wired for the most part. Phone booths was still a thing. TV was analog and used "rabbit ears". TV sitcoms were life. Music. Oh the music! The music was phenomenal. Girl groups, boy bands, hip hop, R&B, rock, pop. The greatest music artists and music converge into one fantastic era. And we didn't have Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram to talk about it.

Oh to reminisce about days long past or those glorious days of yore. During that time, a nascent network was operating, used only in the hands of scientists, educators, doctors, and the government. During this time, bulletin boards were popular and people were downloading and installing NNTP clients on their machines. My first memories of the Internet was using it for research in 1993 at Coker College's library, where my sister was a student. I had a paper on whales that was due in my high school's marine biology class on dolphins. I printed out the results on the school's dot matrix printer, assembled my thoughts, and then typed the paper on my school library's computer and then printed it off. Once it was printed, I placed it in a report cover and handed it in the next day. The internet then was just a repository of information.

Then 1995 happened, the Internet was officially opened for business.(Or that at least notice that the web was open for business.) Businesses took the plunge into the World Wide Web. At a summer camp that year, I used Netscape Navigator 2.0 and NCSA Mosaic to look up information on BASIC to write some BASIC commands for a telescope at Clemson University for their physics department. There were very few images and images were skewed. Definitely not the modern design and user interfaces that we now take for granted. It wasn't until 1999 that I had internet on my own and that was from a Netzero disk that I received in the mail. Free Internet as long as you were willing to deal with the ads and log in using a number in your location. Hours upon hours of downloading music, videos, Linux distros at 33.6 Kbps on a Emachines desktop computer with a CRT monitor. (I also had a 9600 baud modem for backup in case the built-in modem stopped working.) Internet speeds peaked at 56kbps and remained stagnant there for a long time in my community until a server was placed in my community in around 2005. Some parts of our county still have to use dial-up connections. Last mile service is definitely needed in rural communities and the digital divide is still something that impacts rural, impoverished communities in 2022.

Times have definitely changed. Today I'm writing this article on an Internet connection with a broadband speed of 50Mbps and my ISP is installing fiber cable with hopes to have gigabit internet throughout the county. Though gigabit internet is not currently available where I live, it is definitely encouraging that it may soon be available in the future and I will definitely be taking advantage of it.