What year did you start using the internet regularly?

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I remember Trumpet Winsock! I also remember that familiar sound of the 56K modem picking up, dialing, and that indistinguishable sound of connecting to the ISP. I also remember hearing that sound quite often, due to constantly losing my connection to AOL while in the midst of chatting with people ! !

Amazon was only synonymous with the jungle, internet ordering was generally non-existent, and there were very few, if any, advertisements everywhere. I also had my own website I created from a blank slate using pure HTML. I miss those days!

My guess is the previous poster voted for 1992 or 1993. Am I right?

2009 FTW!

I remember my sister connecting to billboards and chatting with people in the mid 1990's on a blk and wht mac classic that cost thousands then. I then was introduced later in 1995 in college. Then AOL and email on my in-laws Mac LCII that maxed out at 8megs Ram. I couldn't believe I was doing page layouts on that thing. AOL was 10 bucks @hr. So I mostly just checked email but was on a couple chat rooms. I remember a Star Trek room I visited and various other sites. Most took to long to load unless they were text based. We got a Gateway but it was mostly my husbands at the time. I was more familiar with Macs so when I got my powermac 7500 in 2000, I was finally on the internet regularly.

First exposure to the internet was late 1993. The school library had it on a Macintosh running NCSA Mosiac. Access was through an ISDN hook up courtesy of the phone company. Not a whole lot up there then, mainly university stuff to toodle through.

Parents got internet at home in '96. No Google, but their was Infoseek and Yahoo!

The first website I fell in love with... Jumbo.com

I didn't even start using the internet until around 2001, and I didn't have my own computer until 2006.

Around 2005-6ish

2004, when I was 9 years old and could actually figure it out.

Hmmmmmm wanna say back in 2004, or maybe even before then...

Interesting range of responses. I guess when I put out this poll, I had intended it for people who were 30 + and starting using the internet as teens or adults. I didn't realize I'd get a lot of votes from teens who grew up around the internet and started using it post 2002 just because they weren't old enough to navigate it well until around 8-9-10 or whatever age they started using it regularly.

I guess that puts things into prospective for me. Back in the early 1990s, hardly anyone had HEARD of the internet, yet alone used it- it was strictly the domain of computer techies and academics. If you had said the word "e-mail" and "internet" to the lay person in 1990, they would have looked at you blankly.

Back in 1995, most people probably heard of the internet but hadn't used it. It was starting to pick up among college students. There were still very few ads out there and people considered you "super tech savvy" if you and an e-mail address and could navigate the web.

In 2000, the internet was finally mainstream but you still had to ask people, "Do you have an e-mail address?" rather than "What's your e-mail address," as not everyone was yet on-line (Although at this point, I would guess that 90 percent of people between 16 and 30 had an e-mail address, I'd still say the numbers were a lot lower for non-technical people and non-professionals over 40).

I think it was around 2003-3004, that we started taking it for granted that anyone between the ages of 15and 50, would have an e-mail address and know how to surf the web.

Fast forward to today, and I think there are still a few adults out there (mostly senior citizens) who still haven't mastered the basics of surfing the web but they are in the small minority. Nowadays, it's hard to imagine that a mere generation ago, the internet was unheard of when it is now a ubiquitous of every day life.

I think I would had a lot happier of a childhood if the internet was around when I was growing up- For us Aspies, it's a safe haven to read about our obsessions, play games, and spend time on forums when our real-life peers reject us.

I had to find solace in reading books and watching TV when all the other tweens and tweens were socializing after school and on weekends as I literally had no friends from age 11 to 18.

1998. I believe I was 7 or 8 then.

I started using it regularly when I got my first PC; an IBM clone 486 desktop in '97, and opened an AOL account. Prior to that, I was not only computer illiterate, but I felt strongly that a computer had no place in the home, and that it would cause laziness, loss of library skills, and cause the dis-education of people.

I was wrong on all that!

The only bad thing for me, is that it opened a new door to the ability to find and buy things pertaining to my special interests. eBay caused me to suddenly own over 12 vehicles, and hundreds more old TV sets, and now at least 5 air raid sirens. But the up side of that is, I have sold plenty as well, and between eBay and Craigslist, my wife and I have bought and sold at least 25 vehicles all to our benefit, and we even bought a 4-unit apartment building due to a posting on CL, and have maintained it's occupancy thanks to the internet.

I think my experience says a lot about the benefits, but sadly, the negatives might be a grand increase in money fraud, and worse such as child porn, which seems to have infected and manifested within the internet. I guess with all roses, there must be a few thorns someplace.

Charles

I started getting into it when I was about 11 or so. I first started going online when I was 9, but not regularly.