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Jason Kirk @jasonkirk.fyi

Discovering computer as an adult makes you go crazy. Discovering computer as a baby makes you go crazy. In all of human history, there will only ever be one generation to discover computer at the correct age: 13

sep 12, 2025, 8:58 pm • 20,251 4,688

Replies

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Jason Kirk @jasonkirk.fyi

While we're at it, here is the best book ever written about AOL Instant Messenger Teenagers

sep 12, 2025, 9:51 pm • 183 14 • view
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Rude Law Dog @esghound.com

ohh this looks great, added to my backlog. Will be back in 3-18 months with comments lol

sep 13, 2025, 12:22 am • 5 0 • view
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mimmothteaparty.bsky.social @mimmothteaparty.bsky.social

📌

sep 13, 2025, 12:46 am • 0 0 • view
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Philip K. Dick Trickle @pkdtrickle.bsky.social

It’s was a simpler, if not kinder, time.

sep 12, 2025, 9:54 pm • 1 0 • view
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Takao Yamada @taksea.bsky.social

Part of why I recommend this book to everyone is that there has never been a more accurate depiction of AIM anywhere ever. It’s note perfect there (and in many other places).

sep 12, 2025, 10:14 pm • 19 0 • view
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Jason Kirk @jasonkirk.fyi

🫡

sep 12, 2025, 10:22 pm • 6 0 • view
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Rufus The Destroyer @jackpalance.bsky.social

This book fucking rules.

sep 14, 2025, 6:27 am • 0 0 • view
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Jason Kirk @jasonkirk.fyi

To address three FAQs: - "Actually I discovered computer at age 10 or age 16" yeah that's 13 👍 - "What about gen x" oh here we go again 👍 - "Actually I discovered computer at age 13 and am still crazy" everyone is crazy for various reasons 👍

sep 12, 2025, 9:26 pm • 1,579 79 • view
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James @roljamas.bsky.social

We got our first non-WebTV home computer in February 2000, when I was…13. Hmm, checks out.

sep 12, 2025, 9:28 pm • 14 0 • view
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🍬 Halloween Candy K250 🍬 @andyk250.bsky.social

WebTV

sep 12, 2025, 11:01 pm • 4 0 • view
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James @roljamas.bsky.social

Hell yeah, was browsing only the coolest Nintendo 64 websites for codes, cheats, and forums on that bad boy

sep 12, 2025, 11:03 pm • 9 0 • view
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PlushWah @plushwah.tf

You brought me back to a time where I was using Ask Jeeves on the livingroom telly to get cheats for my playstation games, damn <3

sep 13, 2025, 3:30 pm • 4 0 • view
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Slicey Boi Athletic Club @uwes98.bsky.social

What if you discover computer at age 6 but don't have Internet connection until age 16

sep 12, 2025, 10:48 pm • 9 0 • view
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ZanziBrie Buck-Buck McFate @briesmith.xyz

Sounds like you’re right in the pocket then

sep 12, 2025, 10:48 pm • 6 0 • view
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Slicey Boi Athletic Club @uwes98.bsky.social

Success win!

sep 12, 2025, 10:50 pm • 2 0 • view
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#TeamCheeseburger @tealdeer.bsky.social

This is me and honestly, it was great

sep 12, 2025, 11:42 pm • 2 0 • view
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Slicey Boi Athletic Club @uwes98.bsky.social

I dominated my classmates in LOGO, then I did everything I could to avoid taking computer programming courses for the rest of my life

sep 12, 2025, 11:52 pm • 4 0 • view
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apheliotropism.bsky.social @apheliotropism.bsky.social

Yeah, first used a computer in kindergarten, but never used the internet till highschool. Up til then a computer was just a thing I played silly little games on or *maybe* typed up a school project if I was feeling fancy.

sep 13, 2025, 10:09 am • 0 0 • view
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Proper Dave @properdave.seeks.quest

I think I was 8 & 18... Or 20 for internet at home.

sep 13, 2025, 5:04 am • 0 0 • view
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should've been a cat @nepenthe.bsky.social

How did you achieve this utterly unachievable ideal situation?

sep 12, 2025, 11:36 pm • 0 0 • view
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Slicey Boi Athletic Club @uwes98.bsky.social

mom got us a TI 99/4a in 1982 and we didn't get dial-up until I was in high school

sep 12, 2025, 11:37 pm • 4 0 • view
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Reuben Baron @rubigb.bsky.social

Young millennial, discovered computer as little kid but it was first How to Read CD-ROMs, then dinosaur websites (safer things to do on computer before 10)

sep 12, 2025, 10:36 pm • 0 0 • view
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Robot Bastard! @robot-bastard.bsky.social

You're still crazy but it's a kind of crazy that can function in a human world rather than a kind of crazy that eats holes in drywall while crying

sep 12, 2025, 11:51 pm • 0 0 • view
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ZHUGE LIANG 臥龍 / 伏龍 @shuchancellor.online

Hello Jason, my name is Zhuge Liang courtesy name Kongming You are completely correct I discovered computer at 13

sep 12, 2025, 9:42 pm • 25 0 • view
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Jason Kirk @jasonkirk.fyi

🫡

sep 12, 2025, 9:47 pm • 11 0 • view
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Starstorm/Cyberlux @starstormx1.bsky.social

"Everyone is crazy for various reasons" is right

sep 13, 2025, 1:46 pm • 1 0 • view
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H R Pickens @hrpickens.bsky.social

"What about gen x" Wait. We WERE talking about gen X, right? Who else could have discovered computer at 13?

sep 13, 2025, 4:17 am • 3 0 • view
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Glenn @donniet3.bsky.social

You didn’t Address my FAQ.

sep 12, 2025, 9:39 pm • 0 0 • view
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Pool Rat @dingokayfabe.bsky.social

Actually you’re perfectly correct

sep 12, 2025, 10:42 pm • 0 0 • view
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jimboch.bsky.social @jimboch.bsky.social

I hope there’s ASCII art at the beginning of this FAQ

sep 12, 2025, 9:29 pm • 490 5 • view
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Johan Lundgren @mcbiff.bsky.social

Gotta jam that site counter and spinning ”Under construction” gif in there as well. Oh, and don’t forget that all cool sites use html frames. … Maybe some sick midi track playing as well, as you delve deeper into the Links page of -=PwNm4s7eR=- and sign his Guestbook.

sep 12, 2025, 11:32 pm • 8 0 • view
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POGtastic @pogtastic.bsky.social

Thanks xXxSephirothWrath94xXx, very helpful

sep 12, 2025, 11:50 pm • 3 0 • view
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Mike Pirrotta @psychprof85.bsky.social

In case you didn't see, new game site @roguesite.bsky.social is doing ASCII art for their game guides

sep 13, 2025, 12:27 am • 4 0 • view
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épinards & caramel @epinardscaramel.eu

😭🥰

sep 13, 2025, 6:23 am • 0 0 • view
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Code Junkie @codejunkie.bsky.social

A good use for AI would be to train one to convert movies to ASCII art.

sep 13, 2025, 12:10 pm • 4 1 • view
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Jason Kirk @jasonkirk.fyi

After the Metal Gear Solid 1 walkthru

sep 12, 2025, 9:29 pm • 221 0 • view
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Sedna51 @sedna51.bsky.social

Jason I watched a playthrough of one of the Metal Gears last night. I thought I was prepared after hearing you guys talk about Hideo Kojima? I was not remotely prepared.

sep 12, 2025, 10:13 pm • 3 0 • view
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Jason Kirk @jasonkirk.fyi

sep 12, 2025, 10:22 pm • 2 0 • view
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Sedna51 @sedna51.bsky.social

Thank you Pastor Kirk 🙏

sep 12, 2025, 10:23 pm • 0 0 • view
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Sedna51 @sedna51.bsky.social

"he was both of their fathers, and he has an eyepatch" ah shit we're about to go into the Arian heresy again, aren't we

sep 12, 2025, 10:27 pm • 2 0 • view
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Jō-baiden @doom2.zip

cops are not allowed to read the FAQ under the Internet privacy act signed by bill clinton

sep 12, 2025, 9:46 pm • 99 0 • view
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lauanndal.bsky.social @lauanndal.bsky.social

Oh no. I fear I'm exactly the right age for this discourse, because it was definitely on geocities.

sep 12, 2025, 9:46 pm • 12 0 • view
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Schadenfraud @twothenumbertoo.bsky.social

We made geocities pages in high school computer class

sep 12, 2025, 11:20 pm • 2 0 • view
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Milkii B, Mx @mxmilkiib.bsky.social

electronic typewriters n 286s at 'bout age 5/7 here "millennial" is a US term! it were "generation y" when I were a lad! (n, yeah, crazy) I was on Minitel at 5 for like 5 minutes several years before the web (13 in 96), still got the RBS branded device, a blue computer in keyboard shaped thing

sep 13, 2025, 3:09 pm • 0 0 • view
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oscar gamble @ronaldraygun.bsky.social

jason could you make sure your next skeet exactly describes me and only me, mkay thx

sep 12, 2025, 9:33 pm • 12 0 • view
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James Harbeck @sesquiotic.bsky.social

I thought you were talking about Gen X! I was born in 1967 and started using computers in 1980. Who else fits that?

sep 12, 2025, 10:10 pm • 5 0 • view
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wishiwasamermaid.bsky.social @wishiwasamermaid.bsky.social

I’m Gen X too but about 12 years younger than you, which is probably in the range he calls millennial.

sep 12, 2025, 10:45 pm • 1 0 • view
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James Harbeck @sesquiotic.bsky.social

(Yes of course I didn’t use the internet until I was in my 20s, but that’s another thing)

sep 12, 2025, 10:11 pm • 3 0 • view
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𝑲𝒂𝒔𝒔𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒓𝒂𝑺𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏 @kassandraseven.bsky.social

Older millienials and cuspers

sep 13, 2025, 2:18 am • 1 0 • view
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Aaron @azpenguin.bsky.social

GenX had BBS's, that really didn't count.

sep 12, 2025, 9:32 pm • 1 0 • view
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Awesome Bobby @awesomebobby.bsky.social

Printing out pictures of Carmen Electra, that took 3 minutes to fully load, then ripping off the perforated hole edges so you could bring them up to your bedroom was the natural way to go through puberty.

sep 12, 2025, 10:19 pm • 8 0 • view
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zneeley25.bsky.social @zneeley25.bsky.social

Modem dial up sounds create a protective barrier btwn the internet and your mind, need to bring it back

sep 12, 2025, 9:29 pm • 112 20 • view
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David Slack @slack2thefuture.bsky.social

Also, sometimes your mom picks up the other extension and you get disconnected and realize how bad you have to pee.

sep 16, 2025, 5:54 am • 2 0 • view
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RJ Nerd Dad @rjnerddad.bsky.social

Gen X here. I discovered computer at age 10. So yeah, I'm definitely crazy.

sep 14, 2025, 2:20 am • 1 0 • view
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〙🌸 pris 🌸〘 @prisyum.bsky.social

i discovered computer at 5, is that 13 or baby

sep 12, 2025, 9:48 pm • 1 0 • view
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〙🌸 pris 🌸〘 @prisyum.bsky.social

(that was in the year 2000 though)

sep 12, 2025, 9:49 pm • 0 0 • view
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danger and dance @jai-dit.bsky.social

Same but in 1992

sep 13, 2025, 12:13 am • 0 0 • view
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Andrew @swandre3000.bsky.social

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

sep 12, 2025, 9:29 pm • 0 0 • view
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Hrimhari @hrimhari.bsky.social

Gen X may have discovered computer early (I did) but almost no-one had any internet And even if we did, the internet wasn't the same

sep 13, 2025, 4:45 am • 3 0 • view
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Jen in Motion @jeninmotion.bsky.social

Me: "Oh, it me even though I was like 14 or 15" so I get you, king.

sep 12, 2025, 9:44 pm • 1 0 • view
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Paweł Ausir Dembowski @ausir.bsky.social

I did at age 9 but it was a Commodore 64

sep 12, 2025, 9:30 pm • 15 0 • view
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Perd Ferguson, Your Weird Little Internet Friend @perdferguson.bsky.social

sep 13, 2025, 3:57 am • 2 0 • view
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Alastair Zaraza⛥🔯⛧⚧🏳️‍🌈 they/xe/it @zaraza.bsky.social

Yeah the early non-networked kind doesn't really make the crazy go brrrr the same way

sep 12, 2025, 11:40 pm • 6 0 • view
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Reverend Doktor Doctor Phill @revdrdrphill.bsky.social

but what about gen... ah wait, never mind. i see it now.

sep 14, 2025, 8:15 am • 0 0 • view
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should've been a cat @nepenthe.bsky.social

They have a point about gen x tho :P

sep 12, 2025, 11:35 pm • 0 0 • view
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Desert Boy @bakefreeordie.bsky.social

Theory holds up

sep 13, 2025, 2:48 am • 0 0 • view
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First Alicename @ageofmediocrity.bsky.social

being crazy FROM the computer, rather than being crazy RELATED to the computer, are different concepts. Crazy from the computer is when u think tweets ar ereal life and u cant tell a fake image at all and believe everything u are told and will kill over it i agree, 13 computer prevents this

sep 12, 2025, 9:48 pm • 0 1 • view
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First Alicename @ageofmediocrity.bsky.social

be like if there was an age where u are exposed to video games and u know its not real and can engage in reasonable skepticism and not totally become it and if u play videogames from infancy or in middle age, u literally think mortal kombat is real and try to make it real

sep 12, 2025, 9:49 pm • 0 1 • view
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Oddly @oddlytaco.bsky.social

Is this because people are sending these replies in earnest not realizing you’re shitposting

sep 13, 2025, 12:15 am • 1 0 • view
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nydeliveryguy.bsky.social @nydeliveryguy.bsky.social

Napster

sep 13, 2025, 12:54 am • 0 0 • view
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Can't Think of Clever Name @noclevername.bsky.social

I first touched a computer age 12. It was an Apple IIe. I had to pirate my music over dial up. I think I’m ok.

sep 13, 2025, 12:00 am • 0 0 • view
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Dane Pop Frippery @danepopfrippery.bsky.social

My grandpa (even before covid kicked in dementia) swears I grew up with the iPhone. I was in my mid 20s when it came out. Meanwhile his older brother at 95 can work wifi and basic smartphones (fwiw I was 13 when I got most time w computer)

sep 12, 2025, 11:16 pm • 0 0 • view
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Seulement Moi @seulementmoi.bsky.social

their called xennials. micro-generation born between 77-85. born analog, adults digital.

sep 12, 2025, 9:45 pm • 5 0 • view
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Ed Huyer @arcanum3000.bsky.social

I discovered computer at about 3. But it was a Commodore VIC-20.

sep 13, 2025, 2:00 am • 1 0 • view
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4jim @4jim.bsky.social

I have had a computer since about 7th grade some time around 1982. Sometime after that I got one with cassette tape storage.

sep 12, 2025, 11:31 pm • 0 0 • view
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Questionable Taste Hours @goodnighteye.bsky.social

You can play Barbie Horse Adventures and JumpStart before then, but the right time for The Web is definitely fifth-seventh grade

sep 12, 2025, 11:21 pm • 0 0 • view
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"Captain" "Ruck" "Cohlchez" @captainruck.bsky.social

Computer at like 4, but internet at 13. I think it worked out about as well as could for anyone appropriately maladjusted to this world

sep 13, 2025, 12:12 am • 2 0 • view
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Josh Cain @joshcain.bsky.social

The internet is the palantir. Gen Z is Pippin. Boomers are Saruman. Gandalf and Aragorn are Elder and Younger Millennials staring straight into the heart of the info overload and beasting through it without going completely insane.

sep 13, 2025, 12:34 am • 0 0 • view
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eenQuay itchBay @androidmedia.bsky.social

sep 13, 2025, 10:30 am • 0 0 • view
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Snakebite Diablo, the Gila Monster of Radio @hesnoroydonk.bsky.social

If the world’s finest mathemeticans would assemble to determine the optimum time for a to first be exposed to goatse, we might actually figure this thing out

sep 13, 2025, 1:19 am • 1 0 • view
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Joshua S. 🎂 @cakinator.bsky.social

Honestly yeah.

sep 13, 2025, 1:04 am • 0 0 • view
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cometsncats.bsky.social @cometsncats.bsky.social

🙋🏽‍♀️ I feel crazy bc everyone else is crazy 👍🏽

sep 12, 2025, 11:56 pm • 0 0 • view
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Who Needs a Handle @joeyossarian.bsky.social

No children should use a tablet until after they know their homerow keys No children should know how a touch screen works until after they know how a dropdown menu works

sep 12, 2025, 9:30 pm • 5 0 • view
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Jeroen Hoogstraten @jeroenhoogstraten.bsky.social

🖐️

sep 14, 2025, 6:51 am • 0 0 • view
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Caravelle @caravellin.bsky.social

Reposting bc funny & generational solidarity but IDK if even that's true. I'm sane online don't get me wrong but I'm clearly addicted, and I see it clearly as I try to save my 6 year-old from that fate. The other day I negotiated "no screens tonight" by applying it to me too for once, it was SO HARD

sep 14, 2025, 8:31 am • 0 0 • view
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MattMT @mattmt.bsky.social

should be like santa when you're little, you're very carefully never exposed to any tech more advanced than a microwave and then at 13, they let you into the study you've never been allowed in before and show you how to setup a livejournal account

sep 13, 2025, 10:18 pm • 2 0 • view
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Adam King @adamkingxv.bsky.social

We carry our burden responsibly, and with only medium amount of Strong Bad quotes

sep 12, 2025, 10:34 pm • 0 0 • view
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Horn Slack @horn-slack.bsky.social

Dude got a laptop for Christmas at 13...

sep 13, 2025, 12:59 am • 0 0 • view
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JAMPH @jamph.bsky.social

And the internet exposure starts out very slow and small-scale and only ramps up gradually over a course of years.

sep 18, 2025, 2:41 am • 0 0 • view
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Robert @spider76x.bsky.social

Elder millennials and young Gen X are the only ones smart enough to see bullshit on the internet.

sep 12, 2025, 9:10 pm • 36 0 • view
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Starlisa @starlisab.bsky.social

Well, then… I don’t know. I’ve gotten pretty good at spotting a lot of BS on the Internet & I came way before you. 🤣😱. Question everything! But I’ve really been enjoying the conversations. my daughter fits into your category, millennial I think. We had one of the early Apples and no Internet Yet.

sep 13, 2025, 4:34 am • 0 0 • view
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Gigi_TXAngel @commanderandthief.bsky.social

Young gen X? Uh…hmmm🧐! Doesn’t track with me

sep 12, 2025, 10:48 pm • 0 0 • view
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Robert @spider76x.bsky.social

Well I’m in my late 40’s and my millennial wife is only 40.

sep 12, 2025, 11:23 pm • 2 0 • view
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Gigi_TXAngel @commanderandthief.bsky.social

I’m in my mid 50’s. I’m not the beginning of GenX but I’m not a younger GenX

sep 12, 2025, 11:26 pm • 2 0 • view
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Robert @spider76x.bsky.social

I’m 48. I’m on the younger side. You were an adult when Nirvana broke. I was still a kid. You are a true blue Gen X. I have a lot of crossover with millennials.

sep 12, 2025, 11:28 pm • 1 0 • view
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Gigi_TXAngel @commanderandthief.bsky.social

I bridge the gap

sep 12, 2025, 11:29 pm • 1 0 • view
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Dr. PTOR's ‎SanctumSanctorum 🤟 @sanctumblog.bsky.social

Late 50s GenX Dial up modem, dot matrix printers, your choice of amber, green, or B/W computer monitor screen. Been there, done that, bought the soundtrack, on vinyl, for one penny from Columbia House and BMG. 😉

sep 13, 2025, 12:42 am • 0 0 • view
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Robert @spider76x.bsky.social

I was at the late end of vinyl. We would buy a cassette at Camelot music, dub it, and then return it. Either or one friend who buy a tape and then we’d all have it. Blank cassettes were the best.

sep 13, 2025, 12:51 am • 3 0 • view
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Dr. PTOR's ‎SanctumSanctorum 🤟 @sanctumblog.bsky.social

That was always a popular method of sharing music. We would take turns buying the original, and make copies for the others. I had a turntable/ 2-tape deck unit, so I could tape the record as it played, or play a cassette on one and tape it on a blank. But that way, we could all have the albums.

sep 13, 2025, 12:55 am • 1 0 • view
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Robert @spider76x.bsky.social

Did your stereo have the option where you could dub a tape at 2x the speed?

sep 13, 2025, 3:36 am • 0 0 • view
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Parker Benchley 🇨🇦 @parkebench.bsky.social

Just 60, vanguard of GenX, 300 Baud dial up ➡️ 1200 ➡️ 2400 ➡️ 9600 ➡️ 128kb ISDN (2 56k circuits) ➡️ ADSL, etc, etc. Though I think the true mark of the GenX is that coming of age with the emergence of caller ID means we never answer an unknown caller so GenX never shows up in polls or surveys.

sep 13, 2025, 1:42 am • 1 0 • view
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Robert @spider76x.bsky.social

We’re definitely the most cynical generation.

sep 13, 2025, 2:32 am • 1 0 • view
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Gigi_TXAngel @commanderandthief.bsky.social

My penny got me a dozen cassettes. My memorex was for the top 10 of Casy Kasem’s America’s top 40.

sep 13, 2025, 12:46 pm • 0 0 • view
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Guachi @guachi.bsky.social

That's not age 13, though. It's Americans born 1970 to 1975.

sep 12, 2025, 10:23 pm • 1 0 • view
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Robert @spider76x.bsky.social

I was born in 76. I was in high school when the internet began to become a thing.

sep 12, 2025, 11:25 pm • 1 0 • view
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Alex Gibson - Edumaker @alex.edumaker.net

I was born in 1978 but we had a great computer literacy programme in the UK and I lapped up all things computer, happy memory aged 9 or so my grandparents took me to a computer programming course, which I suppose was also a me programming course.

sep 13, 2025, 12:30 pm • 1 0 • view
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GcL @grosscol.bsky.social

Oregon Trail generation got the only good introduction to computing.

sep 13, 2025, 6:44 am • 1 0 • view
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HeadChange @lisadmcm.bsky.social

The correct age is 28

sep 13, 2025, 1:24 am • 0 0 • view
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Pleb @facelesspleb.bsky.social

I discovered computer right before the 2000 election, so i went insane despite being in the right age bracket.

sep 13, 2025, 12:59 am • 0 0 • view
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TW @twesq.bsky.social

a/s/l?

sep 12, 2025, 9:49 pm • 20 0 • view
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Yes @myvoicemypassport.bsky.social

Preach

sep 12, 2025, 11:06 pm • 0 0 • view
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Mark Hamann @ki7bda.bsky.social

TRS Model III, 2MHz, 48kB RAM. I learned Z80 assembly and Radio Shack sold its schematics.

sep 12, 2025, 10:45 pm • 1 0 • view
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Adam @adubyab.bsky.social

Image of the thing that broke my mind

Box art for the quest for glory anthology, a compilation of 4 MS DOS adventure games published by Sierra for PC
sep 12, 2025, 9:00 pm • 18 0 • view
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A. Fresnel @fresnel.bsky.social

The first computer I ever used in elementary school had two floppy disks and no hard drive and it was obvious that to some extent everyone involved in making it was operating on the same level as a 5th grader.

sep 13, 2025, 7:07 pm • 1 0 • view
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Mikka @mikka-bouzu.bsky.social

Have personally witnessed a customer's three-year-old pick up a magazine and do the pinch gesture to try to "zoom in"

sep 12, 2025, 11:38 pm • 1 0 • view
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Colin Troy @colintroy.bsky.social

Gen X here, discovered computer aged 8 in 1984 Just finished two day’s hard programming for a deadline Still crazy for computer

sep 12, 2025, 10:26 pm • 1 0 • view
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scary baby @oldbaby.bsky.social

my children are going to type circles around you cowards

sep 12, 2025, 10:28 pm • 0 0 • view
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Layer8 @layer8problem.bsky.social

Nah, we're fucked too. The difference is that a large number of us are aware of just how fucked we are.

sep 12, 2025, 10:09 pm • 0 0 • view
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Chico Arraes @chicoarraes.bsky.social

You shouldn't be allowed on the internet if you've never been on a BBS!!

sep 14, 2025, 6:10 am • 1 0 • view
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LuzrBum @luzrbum.bsky.social

Damn, ZX81 at 11. Explains a lot

sep 13, 2025, 7:07 am • 1 0 • view
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Charlie Bravo @bskyhagov.bsky.social

I guess I started with Basic at my 15yo.

sep 13, 2025, 2:34 pm • 0 0 • view
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Louis @louisevans.bsky.social

have you read the extensive author's note for The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage: The (Mostly) True Story of the First Computer? the only correct age to discover computer is 1837.

sep 12, 2025, 9:18 pm • 8 0 • view
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techn0mad.bsky.social @techn0mad.bsky.social

Modems are too good. Make them start with 5.25 inch floppies.

sep 13, 2025, 3:53 am • 2 0 • view
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Geoexpedition @geoexpedition.bsky.social

Great idea! My job at the time (as a Generalist) required working with engineers, but I wasn’t permitted anything connected to the Net or wireless. My wife got a very early Mac & I saw how it functioned. Later, my ignorance was detrimental when I was transferred to a group filled with techies!

sep 13, 2025, 12:49 am • 0 0 • view
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Mop Bucket @mopbucket.bsky.social

"graphics mode" was a mistake

sep 12, 2025, 9:08 pm • 2 0 • view
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BertSaysWoof @bertsayswoof.bsky.social

Bring back flash player! /s

sep 12, 2025, 9:21 pm • 4 0 • view
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Barton Chittenden @bartonski.bsky.social

Bring back ZORK!

sep 12, 2025, 10:34 pm • 4 0 • view
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Dayna Abel @queenanthai.bsky.social

www.gog.com/en/game/the_...

sep 13, 2025, 9:58 pm • 1 0 • view
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jackson henry @jasonemry.bsky.social

when I was 13 my 16yo sister wouldn’t stop bogarting the chat rooms I was born in the darkness

sep 12, 2025, 10:35 pm • 1 0 • view
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pgoat @pgoat.bsky.social

If the picture of the naked lady took a minute or more to load and a little slice more was revealed of it at a time, you were in the sweet spot of computer-knowing.

sep 13, 2025, 12:22 am • 1 0 • view
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abc @thekitchentapes.bsky.social

Shout out to all my peeps on Prodigy.

sep 12, 2025, 10:54 pm • 1 0 • view
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Professional Monsterfucker @rhysbrando.bsky.social

I mean I'm gonna be real, the insane amount of trauma I got from being a pre/teen on the unregulated wild wild west that was early 2000s internet would argue there is, in fact, no correct age to discover computer

sep 12, 2025, 11:13 pm • 0 0 • view
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Mindy @charliedog.bsky.social

😹

sep 12, 2025, 10:41 pm • 0 0 • view
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Sascrotch @ungoliant.bsky.social

Firm believer that elder millennials are the only qualified internet users

sep 12, 2025, 9:26 pm • 19 0 • view
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François Caron 🇨🇦 @milnoc.bsky.social

A bit younger for me. My first exposure was at a Radio Shack in Aylmer, Quebec. Today, I'm a senior software developer creating small miracles.

sep 13, 2025, 1:23 am • 0 0 • view
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Macular Degenerate @cobtometrist.bsky.social

If you couldn't navigate Battlenet to get to your custom 7 vs 1 Comp Stomp match on Starcraft then I know you can't navigate your way through the modern info sphere.

sep 12, 2025, 10:14 pm • 6 1 • view
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Hagedorn temperature enjoyer @labubupraxis.bsky.social

I'm a cannon whore, in a cannon world.

sep 13, 2025, 12:35 am • 0 0 • view
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Tukenfarben @tukenfarben.bsky.social

The problem with today's youth is that they never had to learn to mod video games. That teaches you the patience of a saint.

sep 12, 2025, 10:25 pm • 6 1 • view
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jedimika.bsky.social @jedimika.bsky.social

Everything is instantaneous for them. And they want to jump from thing to thing rapid fire. Had to drive into my son that when we play a game, we will be playing THAT game for a while. Like... the hell are you even doing in a 15 min Minecraft session?

sep 13, 2025, 11:36 am • 1 0 • view
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omniwitch.bsky.social @omniwitch.bsky.social

Honestly... yeah.

sep 13, 2025, 12:05 am • 0 0 • view
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elletyno.bsky.social @elletyno.bsky.social

Zero notes.

sep 12, 2025, 9:53 pm • 0 0 • view
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Dan Thiell @danthiell.bsky.social

I went from dialing into a BBS on a 14.4 modem in high school to having broadband and AIM in college, and that feels right.

sep 13, 2025, 12:18 am • 3 0 • view
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Rodger Sherman @rodger.bsky.social

sep 12, 2025, 9:03 pm • 281 8 • view
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Han Shot First @han-shot-first.bsky.social

Troll detection skills: maxed Experience in navigating low-stakes flamewars, graduating to higher-stakes flamewars: maxed Ability to tell by the pixels: maxed

sep 13, 2025, 12:13 am • 2 0 • view
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call-151.net @call-151.net

I like this analogy a lot.

sep 12, 2025, 11:46 pm • 0 0 • view
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BertSaysWoof @bertsayswoof.bsky.social

Excellent analogy!

sep 12, 2025, 9:20 pm • 2 0 • view
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Elly De La Christ @ellydelachrist.bsky.social

This seems exceptionalist, but...I truly believe it

sep 13, 2025, 8:34 am • 0 0 • view
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Braden Yoder @bradencarryoder.bsky.social

They don't realize you need to save all of your elixirs for the end of the game and never use them.

sep 12, 2025, 9:12 pm • 5 0 • view
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harold perkins cadillac @scaggsvillan.bsky.social

pre-order bundles suck!

sep 12, 2025, 9:08 pm • 19 0 • view
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TheStoneColdNuts @thestonecoldnuts.bsky.social

I keep thinking about this and not only did we get it at the right age but we had speed restriction training wheels. We had to live with 18kb/s download speeds and .mp3 files. Friction is good.

sep 17, 2025, 2:03 pm • 0 0 • view
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bobismeisbob @bobismeisbob.bsky.social

The jokes are awesome but also yes. Though that's more a reflection of how the internet was at the time I think. This tumblr post summarizes it well I think:

worst case in 2006 kid sees porn worst case in 2022 kid gets recruited as a nazi or follows andrew tate, algorithms didn't used to exist and bad faith actors hadn't yet organized and coordinated.
sep 13, 2025, 12:04 am • 2 0 • view
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vanlighet.bsky.social @vanlighet.bsky.social

Floppy disks.

sep 13, 2025, 12:45 am • 0 0 • view
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alexanderbeetle.bsky.social @alexanderbeetle.bsky.social

Go ahead, date yourself. They did screech though

sep 12, 2025, 11:30 pm • 0 0 • view
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Complex Oscillator @mfelps.bsky.social

If you weren't using a BBS at 13, you missed the window.

sep 12, 2025, 9:59 pm • 2 0 • view
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Erik @stampy.org

that is the exact age I found a 300 baud modem in a closet (why did my parents have that??) and was mysteriously helped to set it up and connect to various things Somehow gopher didn't deter me, but I guess there wasn't much else to do

sep 13, 2025, 5:52 am • 2 0 • view
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Kasemoch @kasemoch.bsky.social

Jesus christ it me

sep 13, 2025, 12:28 am • 1 0 • view
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Kate Jackson @katejackson.bsky.social

That age group is the elder millennial/late gen x ie me

sep 12, 2025, 9:58 pm • 0 0 • view
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MISANDR//Alewife @misandr.bsky.social

bsky.app/profile/misa...

sep 13, 2025, 1:03 am • 0 0 • view
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DON FERRARI FORGOT HIS PASSWORD @drwhiggs.bsky.social

Oh thank God I'm safe

sep 12, 2025, 9:09 pm • 1 0 • view
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auroharu @auroharu.bsky.social

Computers are such a wild mindboggling invention that there probably needs to be a step by step program to introduce it a human, at the correct age, for the human to fully comprehend and utilize it. Shoving an iPad into the hands of a toddler and telling them to go ham isn’t it. 😅

sep 13, 2025, 2:03 am • 1 0 • view
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Sean: your Main Man @mainman.bsky.social

If you ever got kicked off the computer because “your (mother or father) is expecting an important PHONE call” and your Diablo character lost all their gear that you spent 30 minutes duping then you were there at the right time

sep 12, 2025, 10:07 pm • 27 0 • view
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Glenn @donniet3.bsky.social

I ran my virtual Hot Dog Stand in elementary school like an Eastern European Authoritarian and ended up okay!

sep 12, 2025, 9:54 pm • 0 0 • view
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Crazy Cool Caitlin @imcaitlintho.bsky.social

As a kid, I played games on the Disney Channel website (Zoogs, where 'ya at?) and made friends on a Harry Potter forum that I still talk to today. It was pretty wholesome for the most part, you know, the occasional A/S/L? in an AOL chat room but besides that...

sep 12, 2025, 10:12 pm • 0 0 • view
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Okaara Patty @okaracosplay.bsky.social

GenX was counting from 1 to 99 in odd numbers using BASIC at the age of 13; we could also create a picture of a clown that was made up of the letter “x” repeated in a pattern and printed on a dot-matrix printer. Take that, you whipper-snappers!

sep 13, 2025, 9:48 pm • 2 0 • view
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Pool Rat @dingokayfabe.bsky.social

You just couldn’t fit ones and zeroes through those tiny pipes fast enough to do damage. Perfect For building up tolerance.

sep 12, 2025, 10:45 pm • 0 0 • view
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Worms & Snakes @worms-and-snakes.bsky.social

That's right. There used to be one website with like 50 funny videos, and we'd just watch those on repeat like God and Al Gore intended.

sep 12, 2025, 9:37 pm • 7 0 • view
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tomhchristensen.bsky.social @tomhchristensen.bsky.social

I was 13 in 1998 Perfect, no wonder

sep 12, 2025, 10:23 pm • 0 0 • view
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Lvl20FullCaster @opportunemarmoset.bsky.social

Me, seeing tits for the first time: I am going to be very normal about this.

sep 12, 2025, 11:12 pm • 1 0 • view
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CryHavocDOW @cryhavocdow.bsky.social

Start em' slow with a little Oregon Trail

sep 12, 2025, 10:06 pm • 2 0 • view
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Amy @flath2o.bsky.social

You had COLOR Oregon Trail?!

sep 12, 2025, 11:46 pm • 1 0 • view
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CryHavocDOW @cryhavocdow.bsky.social

Nah, it's just a gif. 🤣 Green screen all the way to Oregon!

sep 12, 2025, 11:49 pm • 1 0 • view
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Amy @flath2o.bsky.social

🙌🏻

sep 12, 2025, 11:50 pm • 1 0 • view
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George Wright @georgewright.site

I discovered the computer first hand at 19. It was an IBM 1401. Wrote a Fortran program that accepted two numbers at the terminal (a non-Selectric typewriter) and returned the product. Good times!

sep 13, 2025, 9:28 pm • 0 0 • view
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Sam Halpert @samhalpert.bsky.social

So, we need a rite of passage where community elders induct you into the hidden world.

sep 12, 2025, 11:05 pm • 3 0 • view
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Renaigh☭ @renaigh.bsky.social

whew thank god I was 13 when I discovered the internet.

sep 12, 2025, 9:37 pm • 0 0 • view
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Gaknar @gaknar.bsky.social

I was forged in UseNet.

sep 13, 2025, 12:25 am • 1 0 • view
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Sir Purp @sirpurp.bsky.social

RETVRN

sep 12, 2025, 10:03 pm • 2 0 • view
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Von Hitchofen ™⍼☈♅ 🛩👹😬 @vonhitchofen.bsky.social

I discovered computer at 8.

sep 12, 2025, 10:12 pm • 0 0 • view
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Von Hitchofen ™⍼☈♅ 🛩👹😬 @vonhitchofen.bsky.social

it is too late for me

sep 12, 2025, 10:12 pm • 0 0 • view
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ShakaKimo @shakakimo.bsky.social

I had a 14.4 x2 modem and an extra phone line i was a good amongest my adolescent peers that it only took 3 minutes to open a single porn pic and not 5 and a parent picking up the phone wouldnt cut the pic off mid download.

sep 13, 2025, 12:06 am • 1 0 • view
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Devnull @devnull73.bsky.social

Yep, mine was mid-80s. Are you keeping up with the Commodore?

sep 13, 2025, 1:03 am • 0 0 • view
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Democracy Dies in Dorkness @lizamazel.bsky.social

excuse me I discovered computer at age 8 but it was green and mostly text. I discovered INTERNET at age 22 and that was perfect no really it's fine SOB i never got off it's FINE

sep 13, 2025, 1:37 am • 1 1 • view
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truemetis.bsky.social @truemetis.bsky.social

You need to slowly up the dosage, like developing a poison immunity.

sep 12, 2025, 10:52 pm • 6 0 • view
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Mike 🍁🍂 @michaelt2300.bsky.social

start with ms dos and Carmen sandiego, move to windows 95 in the computer lab, searching web crawler for “Michael Jordan dunk”, then get dial up internet and windows 98 with AIM and ICQ and start a xanga. Then Napster on fast dorm room internet. No MacBook until you are 25.

sep 12, 2025, 9:22 pm • 83 0 • view
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Friendly Gamer @friendlygamer.bsky.social

The geocities webring step has been accidentally omitted.

sep 12, 2025, 10:40 pm • 2 0 • view
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Mike 🍁🍂 @michaelt2300.bsky.social

Ran out of characters but I had an angel fire site

sep 12, 2025, 11:34 pm • 0 0 • view
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Dayna Abel @queenanthai.bsky.social

xoom for me 😆

sep 13, 2025, 9:57 pm • 0 0 • view
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tarkeldagreat.bsky.social @tarkeldagreat.bsky.social

Damn came here for the same comment… add in a little Mavis bacon teaches typing and Oregon trail and you are set! Oh shit and sim city transition to the hamster dance

sep 12, 2025, 9:34 pm • 39 0 • view
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Good Faith Arguments @goodfaitharguments.bsky.social

This is all comfortingly familiar

sep 12, 2025, 10:11 pm • 9 0 • view
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tarkeldagreat.bsky.social @tarkeldagreat.bsky.social

I think that may be what we all need a little bit of right now

sep 12, 2025, 10:25 pm • 3 0 • view
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choo choo choose anger @ralphtheewiggum.bsky.social

You gotta play at least one text-based game.

sep 13, 2025, 4:04 am • 7 0 • view
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silvershoelaces.bsky.social @silvershoelaces.bsky.social

I recommend this one. homestarrunner.com/dungeonman

sep 14, 2025, 3:33 am • 0 0 • view
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ftbains.bsky.social @ftbains.bsky.social

I’m of two minds on this rule - either “and the paper clips one is the only one that counts” or “and the paper clips one doesn’t count”

sep 13, 2025, 5:24 pm • 0 0 • view
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Phocion’s Ghost @phocionsghost.bsky.social

He’s not wrong.

sep 13, 2025, 12:21 am • 0 0 • view
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FCKGW @fckgw.bsky.social

You gotta discover computer when it’s kind of a pain in the ass

sep 13, 2025, 2:32 am • 5 0 • view
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Simon Strick @unddieregel.bsky.social

these days the 8yos are 13

sep 14, 2025, 6:55 am • 0 0 • view
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David Knickerbocker @itsgorain.bsky.social

I discovered it at six and have a really peaceful life. Thirteen is too late. By then I was sysadmin.

sep 12, 2025, 10:04 pm • 6 0 • view
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ImHiding @imhiding.bsky.social

sep 12, 2025, 10:28 pm • 3 0 • view
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harkerthanblack.bsky.social @harkerthanblack.bsky.social

image
sep 12, 2025, 10:13 pm • 2 0 • view
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Joe Friday I'm In Love @ultramod2.bsky.social

If you weren't born between 1977 and 1983 (maybe 1976 and 1984), we're issuing you a CRT television for your own protection.

sep 12, 2025, 9:52 pm • 5 0 • view
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Emcee Hammerpants @emceehammerpants.bsky.social

Please do I miss them.

sep 12, 2025, 11:01 pm • 2 0 • view
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Teao @questionor.bsky.social

Being older genx who discovered computer at 11, I'm wondering about your statement of only "one generation". Which generation do you mean?

sep 12, 2025, 9:17 pm • 0 0 • view
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Rick Perlstein @rickperlstein.bsky.social

Me!

sep 13, 2025, 2:58 am • 1 0 • view
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𝕄-𝔸-𝕍-𝔼-ℝ-𝕀-ℂ @maveric.bsky.social

Wrong! Age 2! At least in my case 😄 and that was before internet.

sep 12, 2025, 11:36 pm • 0 0 • view
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dangit, kyle @dangitkyle.bsky.social

It needs to be something you discover as a young teenager, because anything you like at that age is something you'll eventually feel embarrassed by once you grow up.

sep 13, 2025, 12:26 am • 0 0 • view
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WhiteWhiskey 🔞 @whitewhiskey.bsky.social

Imagine if there was a parental tool that not only had parents able to control what the youngsters see like a lot of them do, but forced the youngster to see through the dial up modem noises every time they wanted to hit up a new website or lode more of a feed

sep 13, 2025, 12:47 am • 1 0 • view
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Mike @mikejl.bsky.social

Watching the same scene from Star Wars over and over via Encarta ‘96

sep 13, 2025, 12:34 am • 3 0 • view
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Dexter Remmick @ltremmick.bsky.social

It's why I'm so well adjusted.

sep 12, 2025, 10:17 pm • 0 0 • view
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Megaweapon @megaweapon5.bsky.social

👋

sep 12, 2025, 11:31 pm • 0 0 • view
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Karen Page @pagingkaren.bsky.social

Notable exception: discover computer at 7-8 but only for playing hello kitty cutie world

sep 12, 2025, 11:05 pm • 0 0 • view
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Han Shot First @han-shot-first.bsky.social

Incredible

sep 13, 2025, 12:19 am • 0 0 • view
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Brianna Nicole Pail @pailbn.bsky.social

Only those who remember the Citrus Scale came out unscathed. I mean, obviously this is also untrue but the odds are slightly in their favor.

sep 12, 2025, 9:00 pm • 29 0 • view
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Kristina Gehrmann @kristinagehrmann.bsky.social

That would explain so much!

sep 14, 2025, 7:00 am • 0 0 • view
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Shayna Moon 🏳️‍🌈✡️ @themoonis.gay

insane (fun) instead of insane (derogatory)

sep 12, 2025, 9:01 pm • 15 0 • view
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silvershoelaces.bsky.social @silvershoelaces.bsky.social

Was that the fanfic thing? One of my friends in middle school hosted a lemon competition and I totally misunderstood what she was asking for 😂

sep 14, 2025, 3:35 am • 2 0 • view
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Dan Emerine @dan-emerine.bsky.social

Me, to everyone else in the replies: OK, computer

sep 12, 2025, 11:00 pm • 0 0 • view
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One of many Dans @guspowers.bsky.social

There's something needed about watching the beast grow with you. Young enough to follow along but old enough to recognize what's new.

sep 12, 2025, 9:55 pm • 1 0 • view
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Pengrondor @pengrondor.bsky.social

The real question is: can millennial parents sort of titrate modern computers to their children to achieve the same effect? Or are we all just screwed until either computers or humans evolve some more?

sep 13, 2025, 12:04 am • 0 0 • view
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Sodaboppin @idolizedpat.bsky.social

The exact age range you're talking about is the one responsible for Facebook & Twitter

sep 12, 2025, 10:22 pm • 0 0 • view
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Jason Kirk @jasonkirk.fyi

Yeah we thought everybody else could handle it

sep 12, 2025, 10:30 pm • 4 0 • view
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Sodaboppin @idolizedpat.bsky.social

Jack Dorsey himself couldn't handle it & Zuck is a hollow shell that barely resembles a person anymore

sep 12, 2025, 10:39 pm • 0 0 • view
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Jimmywim 🍂 @jimmywim.bsky.social

Got my first computer at age 11 [1996]. First modem at 13 and that's where shit really kicked off. Especially when I found IRC!

sep 13, 2025, 12:23 am • 0 0 • view
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Dustin Knight @kitsunewarlock.bsky.social

I started on the computer when I was 8 or 9, but it didn't have the internet and I was just playing Jill of the Jungle, Bushido, and Wolfenstein. I was 12 when I first started using the internet so... you are totally right. I don't think I got DSL until I was 14 or 15.

sep 13, 2025, 12:43 am • 0 0 • view
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Devour @devoureroftime.bsky.social

About that bsky.app/profile/mugr...

sep 12, 2025, 9:59 pm • 6 0 • view
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Jason Kirk @jasonkirk.fyi

Betting a great deal of money he'd been online many many times before then

sep 12, 2025, 10:27 pm • 3 0 • view
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Normal Human Batrender @normalhumantender.bsky.social

Wild to think about getting familiar with computers on a laptop. So you can just.. LAN party without dismantling a whole ass setup?! Back in my day we had to drag giant monitors both ways in the snow dangnabit And we could play with tower components! Remember swapping out your first graphics card?!

sep 12, 2025, 11:01 pm • 0 0 • view
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Leftist McNuggets @itsmaz.bsky.social

Came here looking for this comment

sep 12, 2025, 10:10 pm • 1 0 • view
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Steve Zorn @cvfpartnerships.bsky.social

How about they start with, umm, books?

sep 12, 2025, 10:01 pm • 0 0 • view
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Jason Kirk @jasonkirk.fyi

Um actually they should start with a healthy breakfast

sep 12, 2025, 10:25 pm • 2 0 • view
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branewave.bsky.social @branewave.bsky.social

I was only half-corrupted by dialup BBS'es

sep 12, 2025, 10:58 pm • 1 0 • view
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Joe Hocking @joehocking.bsky.social

oh yeah mashable.com/archive/oreg...

sep 12, 2025, 9:35 pm • 13 0 • view
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Shafer Stromwall @shaferstromwall.bsky.social

There are generations of people that are too young/old to have been scammed in Runescape during middle school, and I can tell exactly who they are.

sep 13, 2025, 8:58 pm • 1 0 • view
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Archbishop Terrier of Church of the Seventh Day Blueskyists. @jackshawhan.bsky.social

This is the perfect age because the mental age of the internet will always be 13

sep 12, 2025, 9:53 pm • 1 0 • view
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September Bird @octoberbird.bsky.social

Prime Runescape playing age

sep 13, 2025, 12:04 am • 0 0 • view
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Hyperlexic @hyperlexic.bsky.social

Gen X voting patterns may undermine this theory.

sep 12, 2025, 11:56 pm • 1 0 • view
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Sara B @sarabjustone.bsky.social

I think is pretty solid. At least according to Civiqs.

sep 13, 2025, 6:44 am • 0 0 • view
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Sara B @sarabjustone.bsky.social

*it’s

sep 13, 2025, 6:44 am • 0 0 • view
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Skelekate @skelekate.bsky.social

sep 13, 2025, 12:31 am • 1 0 • view
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🔞Robb Pepperwolfe🔞 @robbpepperwolfe.bsky.social

Images you can hear

sep 13, 2025, 12:35 am • 0 0 • view
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JP @joelitics.bsky.social

Your alotted baud rate should be: age multiplied by 100 bits per second

sep 13, 2025, 1:01 am • 0 0 • view
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JP @joelitics.bsky.social

Must be 16+ to use Zmodem

sep 13, 2025, 1:03 am • 0 0 • view
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Bam Voiden @bamvoiden.bsky.social

I'd say even bigger impact is the Internet. It came at the perfect time for me personally (teens). Old enough to have experienced what the world is like with real fleshly human connections and young enough to still have that naive sense of wonder and thirst for knowledge and new experiences.

sep 13, 2025, 11:26 am • 0 0 • view
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meatieocre.bsky.social @meatieocre.bsky.social

It is known

sep 12, 2025, 11:50 pm • 0 0 • view
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Anders @derzquist.net

Could you please write 3000 words that is just this repeated over and over again in different ways?

sep 13, 2025, 12:19 am • 0 0 • view
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WorkNowitzki @worknowitzki.bsky.social

Safe computer use starts with cd\

sep 12, 2025, 9:21 pm • 9 0 • view
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Mark Anderson @emer.net

I dunno I was about 6 but computers were like fancy BASIC machines. I was 13 when the internet even started to be a thing, so I think your point remains valid.

sep 16, 2025, 4:08 pm • 0 0 • view
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Lightsong @bearlightsong1989.bsky.social

Earliest Internet I remember is AOL AIM and some random websites that probably don't exist anymore. Landscape has changed since the 90s and early 2000s. I don't even know how I'm gonna handle the internet for my own children. I fear I might end up being a controlling parent But I don't want to be.

sep 15, 2025, 1:06 am • 0 0 • view
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Chris McGilvray @cmmcgilvray.bsky.social

You had to go to a store to get your porn at 9600 baud… and when you got home, your 4mp image had still not rendered. Life was hard in the dark days of aol dial-up

sep 12, 2025, 10:40 pm • 1 0 • view
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Marko Poutiainen @markopoutiainen.bsky.social

Ha, I got my first computer at exactly that age.

sep 13, 2025, 9:20 am • 0 0 • view
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Hagedorn temperature enjoyer @labubupraxis.bsky.social

The 56k gooner knows the virtues of patience and effort.

sep 13, 2025, 12:27 am • 0 0 • view
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First Wordle Problems @fwordleproblems.bsky.social

People like me (young Gen X) are a tricky case because we all KNEW Computer fairly young, often before thirteen. But computer didn't REALLY become computer until we were past the WORST danger zone, age wise.

sep 12, 2025, 10:35 pm • 12 0 • view
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First Wordle Problems @fwordleproblems.bsky.social

Like I was doing some stupid-ass shit online at 21 but it's a world different than getting into that at either eight OR fifty.

sep 12, 2025, 10:35 pm • 8 0 • view
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Thom Bowers @thombowers.bsky.social

I’m in this boat, too. Computer at 10, internet at 18. Definitely *some* damage, but I feel like I got off light.

sep 13, 2025, 12:25 am • 2 0 • view
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First Wordle Problems @fwordleproblems.bsky.social

I choose to believe that the Apple II was such a pure and joyful human invention it inoculated us against some of the Evil Computer to come.

sep 13, 2025, 12:27 am • 9 1 • view
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Democracy Dies in Dorkness @lizamazel.bsky.social

we know where our towels are. we know how not to be eaten by a grue. what else do you need

sep 13, 2025, 1:39 am • 5 1 • view
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Adam Thornton @athornton.bsky.social

Our tragic little robot buddy Floyd. A lizard to be squeezed to death under the light of a crescent moon. A featureless white cube, with "field" shakily engraved upon it with a magical burin. Sergeant Duffy waiting to take away our evidence and analyze it. A black cat with a white-marked face.

sep 13, 2025, 3:23 am • 4 1 • view
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Democracy Dies in Dorkness @lizamazel.bsky.social

burins, not bullets

sep 13, 2025, 3:24 am • 1 0 • view
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First Wordle Problems @fwordleproblems.bsky.social

in the end, truly we all find ourselves in an open field west of a white house

sep 13, 2025, 1:46 pm • 4 1 • view
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Dave M - Prole. 🍉🍉 @davem3393.bsky.social

We know when to use Frotz, when to use Rezrov, and why to use Gnusto.

sep 13, 2025, 3:50 am • 2 1 • view
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Rikibeth @rikibeth.bsky.social

chapstick for kissing the frog

sep 13, 2025, 1:40 am • 3 0 • view
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Democracy Dies in Dorkness @lizamazel.bsky.social

yeh there's only so much trouble you can get into passively surfing a web ring of dancing cats and badgers and academic journals about Xena

sep 13, 2025, 1:38 am • 9 1 • view
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rogu31sh @rogu31sh.bsky.social

I learned to spot BS on the internet at 20. After getting bored of pictures of swimsuit models or text-only pages of bad jokes I stumbled on a page full of scientific fact (i.e. lunacy) where the author claimed having a foreskin was objectively superior to being cut and lamented that his was gone.

sep 14, 2025, 3:33 am • 1 0 • view
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First Wordle Problems @fwordleproblems.bsky.social

oh my GOSH you wandered into one of the OG realms of internet crankery right off the bat. Precocious! Even now, if you mention, uh, THAT procedure in any searchable online space, somebody's gonna show up to talk about it.

sep 14, 2025, 3:36 am • 1 0 • view
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Democracy Dies in Dorkness @lizamazel.bsky.social

also see: talking about FGM, or, oh just a LOT of topics really... I have also been advised that some of the most vicious wars have been between mommy bloggers over breast feeding

sep 14, 2025, 3:42 am • 1 0 • view
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rogu31sh @rogu31sh.bsky.social

No kidding. This was what, 1995? The phrase "sheath within a sheath" appeared on that page at least a dozen times. It was pure distilled batshittery, yet presented as professionally as anything else on the web at that time.

sep 14, 2025, 3:41 am • 2 0 • view
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Democracy Dies in Dorkness @lizamazel.bsky.social

I miss Leslie's House O' Chicks "an eddy of estrogen in the (something dude dominated web)"

sep 14, 2025, 3:43 am • 0 0 • view
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Ralph Bakshots @inwordindeed.bsky.social

It's social media. It's just social media. If your introduction to the internet was having your dad show you hamsterdance and hunt-and-peck typing "nintendo . com" because you like Nintendo, you're fine. If your introduction to the internet was Facebook or TikTok, you're cooked

sep 13, 2025, 9:48 pm • 1 0 • view
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Just Kim @madamkim.bsky.social

I'm a very normal autistic trans catgirl

sep 15, 2025, 6:15 am • 1 0 • view
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Barton Chittenden @bartonski.bsky.social

I have it from friends that 300 baud is the perfect speed to read poetry.

sep 12, 2025, 10:38 pm • 2 0 • view
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🔞Robb Pepperwolfe🔞 @robbpepperwolfe.bsky.social

Only generation that grew up with this youtu.be/gsNaR6FRuO0?...

sep 13, 2025, 12:36 am • 1 0 • view
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Spamuel J. Risk @itshard.bsky.social

Oh shit. There may be something to this. Discovering computer in its infancy and growing alongside it may be the thing. Shit. I don’t know if you’re kidding or not but maybe that’s right…

sep 12, 2025, 9:31 pm • 9 0 • view
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Jason Kirk @jasonkirk.fyi

I'm not at all

sep 12, 2025, 9:33 pm • 4 0 • view
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Spamuel J. Risk @itshard.bsky.social

I had never really considered that old people’s brains were all hard and smooth when the internet was becoming a thing, and that’s why they can’t handle it.

sep 12, 2025, 9:36 pm • 2 0 • view
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choo choo choose anger @ralphtheewiggum.bsky.social

It’s so weird watching boomers lose their mind at the dumbest AI slop. I’m looking at this shit like it’s stupider than “Oww My Balls” from Idiocracy and it will have an ocean of likes and comments from boomers.

sep 13, 2025, 4:11 am • 6 0 • view
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silvershoelaces.bsky.social @silvershoelaces.bsky.social

I was floored as my brother and I were in a Micro Center and he was asking an employee to help him find an appropriate cable because the specs he was looking for weren’t listed on the label, when an elderly man approached and said rather than asking an employee, he’d ask ChatGPT.

sep 14, 2025, 3:42 am • 3 1 • view
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choo choo choose anger @ralphtheewiggum.bsky.social

To me people that mention they use this shit are like people who just got bit in a zombie movie

sep 14, 2025, 3:57 am • 4 1 • view
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silvershoelaces.bsky.social @silvershoelaces.bsky.social

Like, what was ChatGPT going to do here? Magically find the information through the ether? Find a message on the label written with invisible ink? I didn’t want to waste anyone’s time picking a fight, so I told him my brother’s question was too complex for an AI to answer 🙃

sep 14, 2025, 3:43 am • 2 0 • view
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Minor league b3tan bloke @rotatingwobblyhat.bsky.social

a picture of a topless woman slowly being revealed four lines at a time was exquisite tease and an exercise in antici.....................................................pation. It was practically Burlesque rather than EVERY F***HOLE FILLED IN SCREAMING 4K like kids have these days.

sep 12, 2025, 10:05 pm • 0 0 • view
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Lpzie @lpzie.bsky.social

So true. I got it a little bit earlier because I'm smarter than most but yup, I came out completely fine. That's the beautiful of Computer. It's powerful, but Demands a huge price in response...

sep 13, 2025, 12:11 am • 0 0 • view
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Stevie G @stevegome.bsky.social

"I came out completely fine" If you have to say that out loud, then you didn't.

sep 13, 2025, 12:26 am • 0 0 • view
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depresche mode @meatspacecowboy.bsky.social

I also feel like the work you used to have to go through just to get on like a usenet forum was somehow part of an inoculation process.

sep 13, 2025, 12:20 am • 0 0 • view
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Not Amused @redrams84.bsky.social

AOL disk with only 20 hours of dialup access would do it. And a single porn pic download at 56k would take about 10 minutes!

sep 13, 2025, 12:43 am • 0 0 • view
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JHB @jhb.bsky.social

Gotta ease into it with Lemonade Stand and Carmen Sandiego, otherwise you get burned.

sep 12, 2025, 9:24 pm • 2 0 • view
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Tom @stealthisbook.bsky.social

Then there's the generation one half notch before, the cuspers, who tinkered their way either to early dotcom money or a series of shit jobs at Radio Shack and Circuit City

sep 14, 2025, 6:13 am • 1 0 • view
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choo choo choose anger @ralphtheewiggum.bsky.social

Yeah, if you didn’t ever have to wait 30 seconds while your computer yelled “bing…bing bong BINGGGG shhhhhhhhhh” at you, then you’d never know the innate incompatibility of our lives and the online world. You would view this thing as it is: an occasionally amusing trinket to be discarded on a whim.

sep 13, 2025, 4:02 am • 2 0 • view
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Forktail @elanoides.bsky.social

Like most pathogens, it is more dangerous to those with compromised or underdeveloped immune systems

sep 13, 2025, 4:03 pm • 0 0 • view
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David Hart @hartdp2000.bsky.social

We grew alongside the “Internet,” when it started to become available was dial-up bulletin boards and chat. Surfing was tel-netting from one company or library to another. This soon morphed into browsers and AOL. Online mostly from 6p-6a when there were no dial-up charges.

sep 13, 2025, 12:04 am • 1 0 • view
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🩸 Bloodless Nemesis 🩸 @rainbow-nemesis.bsky.social

We got dial-up at home when I was 13 and I don't have computer madness. You are 100% correct.

sep 13, 2025, 2:54 am • 1 0 • view
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stringers @stringers29.bsky.social

I concur. Born 1968, first computer ZX81. Revelatory.

sep 12, 2025, 11:20 pm • 1 0 • view
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Chels @heartsdesire456.bsky.social

And we discovered it when it was a lawless place not yet steeped in capitalism. Old Youtube literally was mostly just emo boys kissing and Taliban beheadings, you picked your poison and either turned out gay or a Republican, and most of us ended up gay. Simpler times, man, simpler times.

sep 13, 2025, 12:09 am • 1 0 • view
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Stevie G @stevegome.bsky.social

What the hell were you searching for?

sep 13, 2025, 12:27 am • 0 0 • view
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Chels @heartsdesire456.bsky.social

Emo boys kissing, duh 🤣

sep 13, 2025, 7:09 am • 1 0 • view
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HWGT9 @hwgt9.bsky.social

If you didn’t play any games from Sierra or Interplay you need to log off now

sep 12, 2025, 9:39 pm • 17 0 • view
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"Time to Punch Nazis" Deana Holmes @littlecults4ever.bsky.social

When I was 13, we didn't even have PONG yet (that was a few years in the future). And when we did get PONG, it belonged to my father. He bought it for himself, not for us. /been online since 1990 with a 1200 baud modem.

sep 13, 2025, 5:28 pm • 1 0 • view
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wesbarton.bsky.social @wesbarton.bsky.social

We were protected by the environmental lead exposure

sep 13, 2025, 1:27 am • 1 0 • view
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Not a Premium Gamer @kiwidman.bsky.social

Fight off the existential dread by gettting real mad about the time at the turn of the century when you got PK'ed by phone call. Also, pay 2 win existed even then. People with satellite internet could lag you out by dropping heaps of shoes in UO. Great, now I think I miss full loot again

sep 12, 2025, 11:03 pm • 0 0 • view
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Lachlan Blackmore @soupness.bsky.social

My family had computers when I was very young, but no internet until I was a teenager. That's the way it should be. All I did on there was play games/paint.

sep 12, 2025, 11:02 pm • 0 0 • view
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1nar1tofu.bsky.social @1nar1tofu.bsky.social

We used to go to a room for the computer. a respected place in the home.

sep 12, 2025, 9:00 pm • 219 7 • view
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Thinkronicity ™ @thinkronicity.bsky.social

It was the one place you wouldn't find your father.

sep 13, 2025, 6:10 am • 0 0 • view
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Dave (@6502_ftw from Tweets) @cursed.monster

Respected? It was a dungeon. We made it think about what it had done. When we wanted to go online, we made it scream. We never should have stopped

sep 12, 2025, 9:52 pm • 125 0 • view
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Jengeth @jengeth.bsky.social

That death hum was music to my ears.

sep 12, 2025, 11:36 pm • 8 0 • view
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Josh Busuito @actionscripter.bsky.social

"It is now safe to turn off your computer"

sep 13, 2025, 11:14 am • 18 0 • view
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Caravelle @caravellin.bsky.social

There was a time in my house it was the baby's room, talk about natural limits on screen time! (Dial-up was no longer the natural limiter by then)

sep 14, 2025, 8:34 am • 1 0 • view
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Yoji00 @yoji00.bsky.social

We have fun here, but I do really feel like things went crazy since we put the computers in our pockets. The internet really did feel more like a destination to visit, not this always-on madhouse overlaid on the real world.

sep 13, 2025, 10:47 pm • 3 1 • view
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Meg @megrosejoy.bsky.social

I’m bringing it back. I’ve started calling my home office “the computer room”.

sep 12, 2025, 10:32 pm • 8 0 • view
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call-151.net @call-151.net

Next stop: raised flooring and jetted tiles! "Sweetheart, why is your floor 8" higher than the rest of the house...?" "It's the computer room. Also, it is restricted space. If your hubby badge doesn't work at the door, you cannot be in here."

sep 12, 2025, 11:48 pm • 3 0 • view
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Lizard @lizardky.bsky.social

Well, for me, it was 14. Apple II in my school’s computer lab. We had 3 units but only one disk. We hot-swapped it between computers. Yes, that was exactly as stupid as it sounds. Please note: 14.

sep 13, 2025, 2:02 am • 0 0 • view
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ecbecker.bsky.social @ecbecker.bsky.social

My math class in 8th grade taught a week of coding in Basic. I created a neverending flight of stairs. And, I’m less crazy than I should be!

sep 13, 2025, 1:17 am • 2 0 • view
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Mario Mangione @mario-mangione.blackskycomra.de

I know they're technically computers so it's basically the same thing- but it tracks for cell phones too - like if you started on a smart phone or jumped to one instead of growing up with them from the bricks to the flips to the screens - you crazy

sep 12, 2025, 11:26 pm • 0 0 • view
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ry @ryxn.eu

Honestly this should be global government policy, and even when they start at 13, they should have to deal with dial up for the first 2 years

sep 13, 2025, 6:17 pm • 0 0 • view
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Brad Wenner @bradwenner.photo

Instead of age verification we need to mandate DOS 6.2 for everyone under 21.

sep 12, 2025, 9:32 pm • 3 0 • view
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Michael Cleary @magnificocleary.bsky.social

We played lemmings in six colours. We have lived for eons, watched epochs die and fall

sep 12, 2025, 9:42 pm • 1 0 • view
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Jo 🏳️‍⚧️🏴🦕 @youjogirl.bsky.social

Just the right age for your brain to be malleable, but not too malleable

sep 12, 2025, 10:02 pm • 1 0 • view
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Jesse @jessetheglide.bsky.social

back in mid 90s when it used to take like 5 minutes to load the espn webpage...

sep 12, 2025, 9:18 pm • 2 0 • view
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toyoga.bsky.social @toyoga.bsky.social

Gen X, truly the greatest generation.

sep 12, 2025, 10:00 pm • 0 0 • view
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tweetuga.bsky.social @tweetuga.bsky.social

It’s the Xennial sweet spot!

sep 13, 2025, 4:04 pm • 1 0 • view
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Don Solomon @dsolomonesq.bsky.social

I think children should have full access to computers as long as they do so in FORTRAN or COBOL and the screen displays only monochrome text.

sep 13, 2025, 2:23 am • 0 0 • view
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Civorker 🔻 @civorker.bsky.social

Having lived a 24×7 off-line world gives you an unique mindset. Millennial pride ✊🏼

sep 13, 2025, 12:36 pm • 0 0 • view
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Coloboma 🎵🎶 @coloboma.bsky.social

Demonstrably false. Unless you meant discovering the joys of an HP-3000 time share computer accessed via acoustic modem and teletype printer with paper tape upload. Circa 1973, junior high school.

sep 13, 2025, 6:28 am • 0 0 • view
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J. Gray Dingler @jgraydingler.bsky.social

That explains a lot. I was 8 and I’m SOMEWHAT crazy.

sep 13, 2025, 12:25 am • 0 0 • view
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--B-- @8b8.bsky.social

Make Computers Yell At You And Be Burdensome To Get Online Again

image
sep 12, 2025, 11:41 pm • 1 0 • view
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🇨🇦 crucialwax 🔵 @crucialwax.com

I learned how to program a computer before I ever got to touch one. I feel that saved me from radicalization but not from helping every relative I have seemingly non stop.

sep 12, 2025, 10:37 pm • 1 0 • view
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Lurch @lurchpenguin.bsky.social

Some people have never waited for a boobs to download and it shows. A strapless top could waste your entire afternoon. You had to click on the blue words. It all made a kind of sense. Not like today. 😵‍💫

sep 12, 2025, 11:02 pm • 4 0 • view
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Kitten's Ceilidh [has to go home tomorrow😭] 😈❤️😇 @kittensceilidh.bsky.social

I was 7 but it was an Apple Mac II so im not sure that counts

sep 12, 2025, 10:52 pm • 0 0 • view
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Dumb Meg @dmbmeg.bsky.social

we learned to distinguish the pedophiles in AOL chat rooms THE RIGHT WAY.

sep 12, 2025, 9:05 pm • 11 0 • view
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YukonHCornelius @yukonhcornelius.bsky.social

The lone generation with a function BS meter

sep 12, 2025, 9:22 pm • 5 0 • view
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jbargarden @jbargarden.bsky.social

Steve Jobs was a boomer.

sep 14, 2025, 11:15 am • 0 0 • view
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Amy and a Cat @amyandacat.bsky.social

GEN X HERE. I agree.

sep 12, 2025, 10:53 pm • 0 0 • view
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Boettchersketch @boettchersketch.bsky.social

🙋

sep 13, 2025, 3:06 am • 0 0 • view
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Janet D. Stemwedel @docfreeride.bsky.social

Commodore Teachers PET forever baybee!!

sep 13, 2025, 2:02 am • 2 0 • view
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Dylan @dpyckles.bsky.social

This is the the true true.

sep 13, 2025, 12:18 am • 0 0 • view
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𝖎𝖑𝖑𝖎𝖆 𝖌𝖗𝖎𝖒 🇺🇦 @illiagrim.bsky.social

you need to earn EXP and level up your Mb/s by posting quotes from songs and writing fanfiction

sep 15, 2025, 1:36 pm • 0 0 • view
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historianonfilm.bsky.social @historianonfilm.bsky.social

And we are the only ones who can fix the printer

sep 13, 2025, 12:35 am • 0 0 • view
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Elvsrad @elvsrad.bsky.social

Yeah, considering my age, and I had an Apple II plus in my house as a teenager as my first computer, I completely agree with this statement!

sep 13, 2025, 1:17 am • 0 0 • view
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Tony Sladky @unitedshoes.bsky.social

I feel like there's an important distinction to be made between "computer" and "internet". We had computer way before I turned 13, but launching The Oregon Trail or KidPix or Tank Wars via DOS commands doesn't drive you insane if encountered at the wrong age. Only internet does that.

sep 12, 2025, 10:33 pm • 12 0 • view
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Todd Ching @toddching.bsky.social

Is this the AIM generation? Cause we ain't ok.

sep 12, 2025, 9:16 pm • 2 0 • view
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Jason Kirk @jasonkirk.fyi

No generation has ever been ok

sep 12, 2025, 9:17 pm • 24 1 • view
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Colin Danby @cdanby.bsky.social

This is what a real interface looks like.

A teletype, accessing a time-shared computer. You could save onto punched paper tape.
sep 13, 2025, 3:41 am • 0 0 • view
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wheeliemum.bsky.social @wheeliemum.bsky.social

Yay! That's my kids!

sep 13, 2025, 6:22 pm • 0 0 • view
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Navid @naveman.bsky.social

I don’t think it’s an age thing. I think it’s a decade thing. I discovered computer in 1986. I also would be completely content to never use one again. It’s actually a dream of mine.

sep 12, 2025, 10:33 pm • 2 0 • view
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Noah Milligan @milligannoah.bsky.social

Kirk assassin discovering computer at 13 Screenshot of assassin's mom's fb post showing teenage white kid in hulk pajamas using his Christmas gift: a laptop
sep 13, 2025, 1:27 am • 0 0 • view
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Aaron Durnbaugh @adurnbaugh.bsky.social

I feel scene.

sep 12, 2025, 10:48 pm • 0 0 • view
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bergeoisie @bergeoisie.bsky.social

Everyone should learn computer at 13 in an environment that only other 13 year olds can see and then that environment should be deleted every year and reset.

sep 13, 2025, 8:23 pm • 0 0 • view
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Ned Pyle @nedpyle.com

Correct

Me at 13 with a TRS-80. I have terrible glasses and a cubs shirt on in front of many full bookshelves
sep 12, 2025, 9:14 pm • 48 0 • view
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cinematic genius @itsmrfungible.bsky.social

That kid is groyper-proofed

sep 13, 2025, 12:23 am • 0 0 • view
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call-151.net @call-151.net

Great photo.

sep 12, 2025, 11:48 pm • 2 0 • view