Ye Olde Unintentionally Hilarious Argus Article

internet96By most accounts, 1996 wasn’t all that long ago. Most of us were in elementary school. Chances are you have some memories from the year, albeit hazy ones. Wesleyan was more or less the same institution it is now, even if buildings and faces were different.

Yet there’s one area in which 1996 seems completely—and hilariously—prehistoric: the internet. That’s why I’m thrilled to present this YOUHAA (pronounced “you-ha!”) from a generation past,  in which wide-eyed students ponder the boundless possibilities of the World Wide Web, from procrastination (“When I don’t want to do my schoolwork, I enter the web and change my papers from English to the Swedish Chef language”) to [gasp!] “X-rated photos.” Oh, innocence.

Learn about Lev Kushner ’98, who “uses the Web for its games and to listen to Bluegrass banjo music”! (Hopefully he has since discovered more uses for it.) And bask in journalist Meredith Orren‘s hilariously understated prediction that “the Internet is here to stay.”

Read the whole thing here: “Internet Continues to Be Source of Pleasure for All” (April, 1996)

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20 thoughts on “Ye Olde Unintentionally Hilarious Argus Article”

  1. Aaron Weiss

    To be fair, I was at Wes when this article was printed, and it was mind-blowingly stupid back then too. Apologies to Ms. Orren, but the Argus was rarely a source of insightful social commentary.

  2. Pingback: Ye Olde Actually Sorta Relevant Argus Article – Wesleying

  3. Dominic

    I’m pretty sure this whole internets thing is a fad.

    Also, World Wide Web != internet. They’d had that for a while back in ’96.

  4. Dominic

    I’m pretty sure this whole internets thing is a fad.

    Also, World Wide Web != internet. They’d had that for a while back in ’96.

  11. Lev Kushner

    I’ll have you know that “listening to bluegrass banjo music” was slang back in the day for twittering.

  12. Lev Kushner

    I’ll have you know that “listening to bluegrass banjo music” was slang back in the day for twittering.

  15. Abe Greenwald

    I happen to know Ms. Orren and she is hilarious, but I assure you, it is always quite intentional. You crazy kids with your “weblogs”. If you only knew that the method of instant messaging students at other colleges back in 1996 was to “finger” them.

  16. Abe Greenwald

    I happen to know Ms. Orren and she is hilarious, but I assure you, it is always quite intentional. You crazy kids with your “weblogs”. If you only knew that the method of instant messaging students at other colleges back in 1996 was to “finger” them.

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