Ah, the 90’s, when the Internet was in it’s infancy and cheaply made self help tapes were all the rage. I stumbled across this little gem a few years back on YouTube, and found it again the other day. Oh boy, this is something else. Filled with terrible jokes, cruddy acting, and some actually decent advice for the time (amazing, I know) this “Kids Guide to the Internet” is a somewhat funny 27 minute slice of the early Internet.
Something I find interesting is that the video tries to cover the fact that the URL for the White House is www.whitehouse.gov – this was in the early days when everyone thought EVERY website was a .com, and back then, whitehouse.com was a porn website (in fact, there are stories from my Middle School of a teacher back in 1997 range telling students to go there without realizing the mistake they were making).. It’s also funny to see the war between Netscape and Internet Explorer going strong, and to see the Special Editions of the Star Wars films being advertised – my birthday of 1997, just a few days after this video was filmed, happened to include going to go see Star Wars Special Edition in theater, so this video really has a time-capsule feel to it.
Enjoy this little slice of digital life nearly 20 years ago, and be sure to adjust the VCR tracking for the clearest picture.