NinetiesInternet.com
In the nineties, no-one really knew what the consumer internet was for. Clips from cyber.cafe below show early users figuring out what it could do to enhance their life.
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COMPILATION 1: Unlocking Community
Many net users had previously nursed a secret or had unrealized desires until they discovered soul mates online.....
Ros. had stayed quiet about a night ten years ago when mysterious lights in a field led to hours she couldn't account for, connecting to others who had been abducted by aliens was a lifeline....Chris introduced girlfriend Anna-Marie to online sex, they came on to explain the mechanics of this new way of bonding in person and remotely.....Chris unlocked suppressed urges to be an adult baby....Greg's nipple server built him a worldwide network....the naked mile website did the same for unclothed runners.
COMPILATION 2: Teens Online
We found a first wave of youngsters living and loving online, some were branded "losers" by their friends....
Sean, 14, had been chatting online with Donna in Pennsylvania for a year, racking up £100 in dial-up charges in just 3 months, he'd never seen a photo of her, he didn't know it but she was hidden in the cyber.cafe listening to him tell British TV viewers about her.........13 year old Nathan spends every evening and all day at weekends online, we brought his parents in they pull the plug out when it's his bedtimes....Phillipa, 17 went to meet her first internet boyfriend four years ago, then defied her parents to meet a range of online boyfriends in real life, none came up to standards she expected....unkind teens set up sites criticizing youth culture and slapping older pop stars.
COMPILATION 3: Emotional Support
Some early net users used it to cope with life shocks......
Robin had just taken out a subscription to the 'net when he was diagnosed with a rare, terminal, form of emphysema; he went to the library but found nothing, but ventured online and connected to other sufferers worldwide......Jonathan found the net's anonymity invaluable while exploring his bisexuality.....Chares mentioned his body hair online and was flooded with emails from other hairies....a death row convict was allowed to share his prison diary online....and a support site for people who can telepathically communicate with animals.
COMPILATION 4: Love Surprises
When digital cameras were rare you often had no idea how online contacts looked......
Nick was in the computer room at college meeting people online, he got friendly with Sharon and over the next week they became increasingly intimate....he finally thought to ask where in the world she was...she was on a terminal across the room ......... John paid for his online girlfriend to fly to England, then she dumped him and transferred the ticket to another guy, he has advice about online love.....Julian in the UK, fell for Riss in Washington DC over the net, she felt the same - they typed backwards and forwards every night for a year....but Riss was married, to a guy she met online......now Riss is marrying Julian.....will they continue chatting to random people online?....Nick was about to leave the internet because of the costs, as a final fling he fell for Tammy in New York and flew to meet her.
COMPILATION 5: Unusual Beliefs
cyber.cafe discovered some of the net's early conspiracy theorists.....
Benjamin was convinced Jesus had returned to earth and was living in North London while ignored by the world, his site offered photographic proof....... sportscaster David Icke's site warned that ordinary people were being turned into mind-controlled sex slaves by world leaders like George Bush......other sites asserted that cats had unique artistic talents on a par with the best human painters.....or that some peoples' heads were prone to exploding randomly.
COMPILATION 6: Early Commerce
Even before online payments, web users were trying to monetize web interactions......
Spammer Andrew was invited on to meet Pete who set up webpages showing spammers burning in hell because of the costs he was incurring downloading their unwanted emails......the first funeral home online boasted of "locking mechanisms" on its coffins.....psychic and mystifier Uri Geller offered $1m to anyone who can bend a spoon online, the £3 entry fee goes to charity.....and you could pay $10 to have your prayers beamed into space.....or make a donation to the virtual bum for hookers or booze..... and one artist speculated on testicles of the famous.
COMPILATION 7: Web Celebrity
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Fans often got online long before their heroes, who needed an explanation of the net; others became web famous......
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Singer and star of Neighbours Natalie Imbruglia had no idea that fans were putting up revealing websites about her, she didn't even have a computer....the Barney Immolation page showed what happens when the loveable kids TV dinosaur interacted with a can of lighter fuel.......Scott set up a site to track activity on the world-famous JenniCam, outputting intimate life moments of one US student.....then met Jenny for the first time when we flew her over to surprise him.
COMPILATION 8: Internet Cynics
Some cyber.cafe guests trashed the net as an unreliable source of information......
Television astronomer Sir Patrick Moore told us it led to "every crackpot coming out of the woodwork" as he rubbished alien abductees, Roswell reporters, and analysis of pyramids on Mars......glamour model Jordan admitted she had never been online before dismissing some of the sex sites we found for her as gross....Chris and Caroline had just gone online and set up a site about their love of cats but emerged sickened from our introduction to anti-cat material on the web......soap star Russell Floyd decided the web was "a load of cobblers".
COMPILATION 9: Truth Discovery
Some users didn't tell the whole truth about their web activities......
Kelly, 17, from Pennsylvania was in England for her first ever meeting with John, 18, who she had already agreed to marry, Kelly's parents don't know she has got engaged online, or even that she was abroad instead of being at school........Nashville Police seem to have put up a site about their operations, until you find the page offering advice for schoolkids.......Stuart met Jenye in a chatroom, he sent gifts and put up a site about his love for her....he was ecstatic when she agreed to marry him, then everything went dead....working on her "worst conmen online" challenge, Anna uncovered a prankster's The Wonderful World of Wingham.
COMPILATION 10: Online Creativity
Anyone with an idea was suddenly free to share it worldwide for the cost of a modem, dial-up connection, and web fees......
Rod's art involved faking beautifully ornate crop circles in angry farmers' fields, his website was "contemptible" according to paranormal investigator and writer, Lucy.......Barnard and Annette had wonderful avatar-to-avatar sex for months, then finally met when we flew Annette over for the real thing......mother and secretary Tracy got online and created a site about farts, with sound files emailed from around the world.....a search for the web's most tasteless art in 1996 turns up dead cat poetry.