I was 12 when this was written. We had a computer that could connect to the internet via dial-up, pay by the minute. My experience with the internet was that i

I was 12 when this was written. We had a computer that could connect to the internet via dial-up, pay by the minute. My experience with the internet was that it was useless, but exciting. I'm not sure why exactly it felt exciting, but I think it had something to do with the chaos of it. There was porn (and rumours about the porn). Information about drugs and weird religions. About a year after this article, I could use huge internet directories to do what I now do procrastinating on wikipedia and ICQ for what we now call social networking. ICQ had a button started a chat with a random person somewhere in the world. 90% would chat back. I think the wildness of it somehow signalled to me that it was a big deal. Wild means open ended. Thats ultimately what made the internet different from telephones, fax, teletext and all the other stuff the author compares it to.