73 Throwback Screenshots Of The Old Internet That Today’s Kids Can’t Even Comprehend

One of the early internet's breakthroughs was AOL dial-up. Once it went mainstream in the early 1990s, normal folks were suddenly introduced to a fascinating new concept: the World Wide Web. 

University of Virginia Data Science professor Mar Hicks credits AOL with connecting people to the world.

“(AOL) allowed ordinary and not overly tech-savvy people to access the internet in a straightforward and relatively easy way,” Hicks said. “(It) made the internet more well-known and more approachable to many folks who had maybe never heard of it before or only had a vague understanding of what it was.”

Speaking of dial-up internet, those who lived through those days remember the iconic sound they heard whenever they connected to the web. Hicks describes it as “robotic screaming” that signals a “hailing procedure between two machines that were trying to communicate.” 

As Hicks explains, the initial screeches during the dial-up process signify a “handshake” between your computer’s modem and the network it is trying to access. It also includes the connection type and speed. 

“The latter sounds represented the process of negotiating and testing the data connection,” she said.

Broadband internet was another breakthrough in digital technology when its early versions emerged in the late 1990s. In a 2002 report by the Pew Research Center, experts viewed this technology as the “largest driver of the frequency of people logging on daily.” 

Hicks also attributes the spike in internet usage to broadband technology, which also eventually led to the downfall of AOL dial-up. 

“The internet is not so much a place anymore as it is a utility, the same way electricity and water in our homes are,” she said. “The end of AOL dial-up definitely represents the end of an era, although it’s an era that I’d argue has been in the rear-view mirror for many people for quite some time now.”