Stroll down memory lane with this 1996 instruction video on How To Internet

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  The log-in screen for the much-reviled America Online (AOL). [credit: Diamond Entertainment Corp ]

The Internet Archive's extensive library is a veritable treasure trove of digital content, including media from now-defunct formats like VHS, with the goal of preserving our cultural heritage. Case in point: a 1996 video, Everything You Need To Know About... Introduction to the Internet (listed as 95021 in what one assumes is a series), was recently uploaded to the archive.

Even the minimal technical requirements to log on convey a sense of just how far we've come since then in terms of sheer computing power. Viewers needed a Macintosh or IBM (or IBM compatible) personal computer loaded with either MS Windows or MS Windows 95; a modem capable of 14.4 transmission or higher; "at least" 8 MB of RAM; and a minimum 500 MB hard drive. (For comparison, the 2020 MacBook Pros come with 16 GB, 32 GB, or  64 GB of onboard memory, and 1 TB of hard drive storage, configurable to 2 TB, 4 TB, or 8 TB.)

It's probably a good thing that we don't get any period sound effects, because the classic sound of a dial-up modem connecting—ever so slowly—would no doubt evoke painful memories for those times one's connection kept dropping and one had to reconnect over and over again, just to send a few measly emails. Dial-up access is still used in particularly rural or remote areas where broadband hasn't yet been installed, but it's approaching extinction: a 2013 Pew Survey found that just 3 percent of US adults still relied on dialup by then.

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