Written for Farrago's 100 year archival series.

Imagine a world inspired by the dystopian cyberpunk novels of the 1980s: in-person communication is becoming less frequent, and people get most of their information through a big network of inter-connected computers which spans the globe. Misinformation is rife, the people are divided and students are forced to turn their cameras on even when they’re really comfy in bed. This was almost our reality. According to an edition of Farrago I found while looking for Star Wars reviews, the ‘InterNet’ was 1994’s hottest media fad; it took nerds by storm and left regular people quite confused.

The Australian Science and Technology Council thought, “in the visible future InterNet-type services will to some degree replace such university infrastructure as travel, additional buildings and on-site tutoring, as well as conventional library collections”. What outlandish claims. After all, according to a survey done by the IT department that year, 31 per cent of students didn’t own a computer while 10 per cent didn’t even use one in their academic work. Luckily for us, Farrago put together a few guides to aids its readers in learning how this weird media fad of the mid-90s worked. 

Susan Luckman put together a list of common terms surrounding computers and the internet, which included outrageous ideas. She wrote, “VR–‘Virtual Reality’–a term coined by science fiction writers and adopted by scientists to refer to a computer technology that has the potential to perceptually mimic real life”. There was no way this “VR” technology would have taken off before subsequently becoming its own media fad in the late 2010s. Susan also tells us how to properly express ourselves by using the smileys :-), :-(, and <:]. How whimsy. Additionally, ellipses were … really… helpful in indicating “sarcasm, irony, emphasis, subtlety”, when bolding or italicising were … too... mainstream. I think we should bring this back. 

One benefit of this weird computer network was the ability to email. Imagine: instead of writing letters by hand, looking through your address book and sending them off physically, you would simply type a message into an email program before using a button to send it to your recipient’s email address. Watch out though, at the time, it cost at least $20 a month to even … access … sending and receiving emails; $45 in today’s money >:[. There was no way this would have ever grown popular.

We also get a small glimpse into what people were like on this InterNet. Brian of MountainNet said, “Dorks tend to be interested in tits, bums, and titillation. Real discussions of relationships make them feel uncomfortable and they go away soon.” When asked if the InterNet could breed feelings of isolation due to a lack of physical contact, Brian said, “I don’t see the net medium as a standalone. I think it should be balanced by a real extension into meetings in the flesh.” Maybe if this whole … InterNet… thing had ever taken off, Brian’s point would have been an important one to consider. If we stopped talking to our communities in the flesh, I personally speculate that it would result in a rise of politically extremist echo chambers which would produce negative ramifications within our society :-(.