24 Nostalgic Internet Posts for People Who Were Chronically Online Before It Was Cool

Before Wi-Fi, before smartphones, before the algorithm decided what we liked, there was the family desktop computer. A chunky beige monitor that hummed like a jet engine, sitting proudly in the corner of your living room. You'd boot it up with your toe because the power button was always just out of reach, wait a full minute for it to warm up, and pray no one picked up the house phone while you were mid-AIM conversation.

If you grew up chronically online before it was cool, your gaming setup probably included a chair stolen from the dining room and a stack of computer-game CDs that somehow always ended up scratched. When it froze—which it always did—you'd unplug it, give it a gentle whack, and hope it came back to life. And when it did, you felt like a hacker in a spy movie.

These memes are for the people who lived through LimeWire viruses, MySpace top eight drama, and typing "brb" unironically. We walked so Gen Z could run on fiber-optic internet.