Just 20 years ago, the common man used the Internet about as often as he used a portal to Narnia, and knew how to navigate it not at all. Back in 1995, the full potential of the Internet was just being realized, and we here at EP figured it was time people had a guide:
We started with the basics, like what the Internet even is and how it came to be:
Before moving to the big question on everybody’s lips 20 years ago: What can you even do on this thing? How is this going to be at useful to my life?
After explaining email—which, can somebody let me know what it was like to live in a world where email was a radical invention? Because I was three when this guide came out, and I can’t imagine it—we ended on a glossary of the terms that you really, really needed to know when braving the Internet:
So to recap, 20 years ago, you could use the Internet the same way as a helpful office assistant—transfer files, searching for things, and emailing the very few people, comparatively, who had computers. Today, it’s
hard to imagine something you can’t use the Internet for. Go ahead, try it.
If you want to see the rest of the guide, you can find it here.
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