Do you remember the first time you accessed the internet?  Why did you go online?

The first time I can remember getting on the Internet is when I was 15. I am sure that I used the Internet for school before then, but as far as personal use goes, we didn’t have a computer at home until Christmas 1999. Santa brought us a family computer, and we got Internet hooked up to it the following week. Right now, I have absolutely no clue why I got on the first time, other than just to check out everything I could do.

I remember setting up an account on MSN so that I could have a Hotmail email…my first email account ever. Not sure know why I chose Hotmail, but it was probably because someone I knew also had an email account there or something. Back then, MSN had Communities where you could meet people. That’s where I met one of my closest friends, Tommy, in either March or April of 2000. We are still close ten years later.

I had a penpal from New Jersey that I got after replying to an ad in teeny bopper magazine, and I was able to find her online sometime in 2000. I think she’s the one that introduced me to Yahoo email, and I downloaded the messenger so that I could chat with her. We had written letters to each other since I was 13, but we drifted apart about the time that I turned 16 and got a boyfriend and an after school job.

Do you remember your first time online?