If I were five years younger, or the Internet was five years older

posted by Jeff | Saturday, January 5, 2013, 11:59 PM | comments: 0

One of the things that I always find interesting about the story of Facebook, or at least the quasi-historical interpretation of it from The Social Network, is the context of the Internet in the time the story began. In 2004, the Internet was very much an integral part of college. When I graduated in 1995, the Internet was little more than terminal-based e-mail and a very small number of commercial Web sites. Colleges were just starting to wire dorms with ethernet, and students were just starting to have their own computers. Just getting Mosaic to work on Windows 3.1 was a huge pain in the ass.

Because I started to build Web sites in 1998, largely focused on community, it's no surprise in retrospect that the audience skewed young at first, and my own social circles were also young. By 2006, there was at least one instance where I was "that guy" visiting friends still in college, and I saw Facebook for the first time. Everyone had a computer, listened to music via MP3's, and the Internet itself seemed to be something that offered so much promise. People ten years younger, "Generation Y," for the most part didn't know the world before the Internet. For everyone coming after that, they're growing up with smart phones.

I was thinking today about how the Internet has made so many things possible, especially in terms of business and career. Today, and even more so in 2004, a kid in a dorm room could invent something with a cheap computer, spend a little money to put it on the Internet, and make a little money. Think about that. Twenty years ago, turning your ideas into reality often meant you needed a ton of cash to physically make something, whether it be a back scratcher or something that required physical space, or a store front. The barrier to entry is almost zero if your idea is something involving the Internet.

I often wonder how this would translate to my own life had the Internet risen five years sooner, or I was born five years later. Honestly, I don't think it would have been all that different, though my age-income curve would be steeper. I also could have lived by myself my senior year, with little concern about rent, although I think I would have still wanted to live with my one roommate. I know for sure that I wouldn't have screwed around with the awful business of broadcasting.

The Internet has been very good to me, there's no doubt about that. I haven't always been able to make good decisions about my career or the opportunities around the Internet, but I can honestly say that I have no idea what I would be doing if it didn't exist. I don't think anything else in our world has so radically changed it. There are millions of jobs that didn't exist 20 years ago because of the Internet.

You can see why I'm generally upbeat about the future, even in light of the hoards of people who use the Internet primarily to bitch about how awful the world is. I joke about how the Internet is mostly for pictures of cats and porn, but what a fascinating time to see what's possible. I only hope that my enthusiasm isn't completely naive, and that the Internet's promise actually makes for a better world.


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