Yes, Internet: You CAN Scar People

Ah the internet... it's a world completely within your browser, ready for you to explore. Ain't it great?

If any of you can remember dial up and your first switch to high-speed internet, you might enjoy this article. This is about my initial change to dsl only 6 years ago next month in 2007.

That's right! Up until '07 I had dial up internet along with analog TV. I have fond memories of static and slow, slow internet. I mean, they weren't all fond, but you know... nostalgia. Anyway, we finally got DSL in August of 07 at my mother's house when I stopped going to daycare in the evenings after school (I had to be dropped off there until my Pawpaw could come get me, but we worked it out where the bus would just drop me off at his house). After all, daycare was 30 dollars a week even though I only arrived in the evenings. It's a great daycare, but that's not really a fair price for being there less than an hour for five days a week. 120 dollars a month was a good bit of savings, so satellite and high speed internet were then options.

Like many, the first place I visited with this new, faster way to travel the world was YouTube. That was a big mistake. The first video I saw that caught my attention was "Happy Tree Friends." It looked cute and friendly, so I decided to watch it. Well, the cute squirrel ate some Easter Eggs and his stomach exploded with chicks coming out of him. Mortified, I went along my way. I had obviously heard of at least one YouTube video before and wanted to finally be able to watch it. It, unfortunately, had to be "What Happened to the Magic School Bus." The animation was terrible (like if it had been drawn at 2FPS in MSPaint), but the voices were actually pretty close. I can't find the video now, but I watched it then. Basically, the class cuts open and dissects Arnold, Ms. Frizzle is sent to jail, and the bus is crushed into a small, yellow cube at the junk yard. This was my first impression of YouTube. I hated YouTube and avoided it for more than two years before finally creating an account to share content - which is no longer there, by the way.

Keep in mind that I was nine years old. I was practically eight, since I had just turned nine. I was freaking SCARRED. I didn't care if some idiot drew the video in his Mom's basement - I was SCARRED. I couldn't watch the Magic School Bus for years. When I had to watch it (like in school), I just beared it. Unfortunately "Happy Tree Friends" still exists. Gyeh.

So yes, internet - you CAN scar people. I was an unsuspecting child who was exploring the quick new world of 1mbps internet. If you're online and all you do is make crap, just get off - or at least warn unsuspecting users that they're about to watch something extremely stupid.