How old were you when you first got regular access to the Internet?

[Encephalon]

At what age, and at what level of education?

 

There's also an interesting statistic that suggests that if you grow up in a household with 500 books or more, your chances of going to college are vastly greater. (Forgive me for not being able to cite that statistic. I read it years ago.) How many books, app., did your family have?

 

Forgive me also for not detailing my sinister agenda for why I am asking this question.

Thanks in advance.

Edited March 29, 2011 by Blasto

[TheSongsofDistantEarth]

At what age, and at what level of education?

 

There's also an interesting statistic that suggests that if you grow up in a household with 500 books or more, your chances of going to college are vastly greater. (Forgive me for not being able to cite that statistic. I read it years ago.) How many books, app., did your family have?

 

Forgive me also for not detailing my sinister agenda for why I am asking this question.

Thanks in advance.

 

Jeez, mid-nineties...mid-thirties...professional/graduate level...books? More than 500, but the whole family would go to the downtown Main Library in Tucson about every 2-3 weeks and we would each check out an armload of books and take em home and read and read. (My mother was a real reader and master wordsmith and a very bright woman--kinda TaoMeow-ish).

[Taomeow]

Jeez, mid-nineties...mid-thirties...professional/graduate level...books? More than 500, but the whole family would go to the downtown Main Library in Tucson about every 2-3 weeks and we would each check out an armload of books and take em home and read and read. (My mother was a real reader and master wordsmith and a very bright woman--kinda TaoMeow-ish).

 

Wow, I'm so honored!

[Sloppy Zhang]

How are you defining regular?

 

9th grade is when getting on the internet started to be a regular occurrence for me to get on the internet. I had access to the internet probably around.... 7th grade, but never really used it.

 

Pretty much every time I wanted to get on, I'd tell my parents it was for homework they were pretty strict about that (but by then I really DID have a lot of homework requiring the internet)

 

We only had one computer, so when my younger sister and brother got into high school, it was always a fight. My junior year of high school is when I just waited for them to go to sleep, and I'd stay up and be on the internet for whatever I wanted. Then I got my own computer for college, and that's when I really got the plunge

 

But I don't have a smart phone or anything, so there are some days I wake up and don't check my e-mail before I head out, so you could argue I don't have "regular" access even now

 

As far as books, uh..... we had a lot. But my parents were big on education and things like that. I bet they read the same statistic you did. 'Cause they were always trying to get me and my siblings to read and stuff (which we did). And I'm in college now. I'd say it's more the parental push than it was there being books. Because, you know, you can learn a lot from books and get a significant portion of the knowledge you could get from college, minus the exorbitant fees and that piece of paper.

[GreytoWhite]

I first started using the Internet at a very young age. I think my first encounter was at the age of five years old. My mother's boyfriend was an avid computer user. Growing up in Northern California and having the privilege of being in Magnet schools as well as GATE (gifted and talented education) programs enabled me to use computers daily. As to my reading experience I have read thousands of books on various subjects. I am hyperlexic and would go on reading binges of up to 40 books a week. That said I rejected the structure and culture of modern education because I found the dogmatic approach to knowledge to be incompatible with the knowledge I was gaining through my own endeavors and my firm belief in the value of knowledge gained outside of books and halls of learning. I have had the privilege of knowing high caliber individuals from a variety of fields including poets, linguists, quantum physicists, engineers, artisans, authors, and more. I have found that I am able to learn more efficiently through my own devices than through someone else's idea of what learning should be. That said the lack of papers after my name has hindered me in some ways and yet I am proud of my accomplishments and friendships.

[ralis]

At what age, and at what level of education?

 

There's also an interesting statistic that suggests that if you grow up in a household with 500 books or more, your chances of going to college are vastly greater. (Forgive me for not being able to cite that statistic. I read it years ago.) How many books, app., did your family have?

 

Forgive me also for not detailing my sinister agenda for why I am asking this question.

Thanks in advance.

 

I know where you are going with this one. I bought my first computer way back in 1999 and that was my first internet connection. I paid 3000.00 for a 750mg Dell.

 

As for books, when I was growing up in the 50's and 60's, we didn't have many books at home. However, being the curious and scientific creature that I was and still am, I read the entire school library. History (American and European), Einstein, science fiction, science and all the great European and American literature that I could get my hands on. Russian novels were not my favorite. Einstein had the greatest impact and still does.

 

After military service in the early 70's I enrolled in college at The Ohio State University. Each college had its own library and the main library was 26 floors. The entire library system was second to none in the country at that time. I thought I was in heaven!

 

Couple all of that with my wife at that particular moment in time, who had and still does have an IQ that is off the charts made the entire college experience unforgettable.

Edited March 29, 2011 by ralis

[Marblehead]

I bought my first computer in 1986, an Apple IIE.

 

I was communicating on bulletin boards before I invented the internet.

[Thunder_Gooch]

My first modem was a 14.4k modem, I remember my first computer that I built it was a AMD K5 166MHz and had like 32mb of ram lol. I remember when dialup was measured in hours per month you could use.

 

I bought my first computer in 1986, an Apple IIE.

 

I was communicating on bulletin boards before I invented the internet.

Edited March 29, 2011 by More_Pie_Guy

[TheSongsofDistantEarth]

I paid 3000.00 for a 750mg Dell.

 

 

 

Wow, that's small. You shoulda splurged for the 1 gram model.

[Encephalon]

I'd really like to stay on task if that's ok. The original question is

"How old were you when you first got regular access to the Internet?" An example of an answer would be "I was 38 when I first acquired regular access to the internet."

Thanks.

[ralis]

Wow, that's small. You shoulda splurged for the 1 gram model.

 

It was late when I wrote that. I know it looks like milligrams.

[Enishi]

Fifteen.

[adept]

I was 29. That would have been 1998.

[Mal]

I'd really like to stay on task if that's ok.

 

fun killer

 

1991 @ 17 yrs old via university mainfraims (IIRC)

I.e. back when it was Usenet and alt.religion.taoism (who am I kidding, it was alt.magick and alt.sex )

 

No way my Amstrad PC1640 was going online

even is it was the flash one with the HDD and flopy disk. Can't recall when I eventually got a modem for a PC, but I do know I had a motorola star tac

and got a landline put on just so I could run the modem

 

Post more 1st time stories

[gendao]

This probably should have been set up as a poll question to show the bell curve.

 

But, it appears that most started logging on regularly around the mid-to-late 90s.

 

So, subtract 10-15 years from everyone's ages here - and voila. That would be post-college for most Baby Boomers and pre-college for anyone under 30. With Gen-X somewhere in the middle.

 

 

 

I think technology has radically altered the way information has been presented and accessed by people over the last decade. For instance:

 

1) Mainstream mass media is filtered by a small handful of media moguls and corporate advertisers whom they sell airtime to.

 

2) Books are filtered by mainstream publishing houses and profit-driven market demographics. IOW, a prospective book must be deemed marketable enough to be worth publishing (thus often leaving out niche or minority viewpoints).

 

3) The internet is a far more unfiltered free-for-all where info has been "democratized" to most average citizens. Anyone can now post & publish most any material for free. And unlike 1 & 2, it is also a 2-WAY interface - not a 1-way lecture where any feedback or dissent is automatically silenced.

 

So in general, the internet has unfiltered and allowed a vastly more diverse spectrum of voices and info to be heard. As a result, people who grew up with different media during their formative years are going to think differently now. Which is also precisely what scares the sh** out of 1 - who are now trying to buy up the internet and "control the debate" again..

[aridus]

Probably 19 or 20 for regular access. Around 1995.

 

Had computers long before that and dialed into BBs, though.

 

Books in the family: I don't know. Well over a thousand I'd guess.

Edited March 31, 2011 by aridus