In 1995, Prescient 5th Graders Predict The Internet Will Be Dominated By Cats
Quick, what did you picture the internet might look like back in 1995?
If you were like me, you might have just been getting your first AOL account. Or perhaps you were one of the earliest of early adopters, already a staple on Usenet lists and BBS forums of yore.
Whatever your internet looked like in 1995, it was probably pretty basic — remember not being able to get through to anyone’s “house phone” back when AOL first went unlimited, and how the fancier families had dedicated phone lines to keep AOL from tying up the home’s main line?
Basically, it was mostly chat rooms and a few forums or email lists back when the internet began worming its way into our lives, and a pretty penny it cost too. (Sparking urban legends about vengeful lovers leaving AOL connected for weeks at a time when there were hefty per-minute rates.) It was pretty primitive, all things considered, but a prescient class of fifth graders had the gist of the 17-years-into-the-future pretty down pat.
The kids made an in-class PSA encouraging folks to begin using the internet that would one day provide a whole host of necessary services, and they explain:
“Hey, why should I be on the Internet? …Well, by the time I’m in college, the Internet will be our telephone, television, shopping center, and workplace… And it’s already got more stuff on it than you could possibly imagine.”
More stuff than you can possibly imagine. And these kids didn’t even have Reddit to find it all for them. Below, the clip of 1995’s vision of the internet — do you think these kids made an impressive prediction?
