Dahe Daily Yu video reporter Sun Kaijie
The year 2024 marks the 30th anniversary of China's full-featured access to the Internet.
Over the past 30 years, China's Internet has grown from a niche geek to a national participant, from laboratories and research institutes to thousands of households, from a few people or dozens of people to a huge platform with hundreds of millions and billions of users.
Nowadays, "netizens" is already a term representing the whole people, and more than 20 years ago, each person's "netizen" may have represented one or two specific people.
Looking back on the past, whether it is a retired employee who has entered the old age or a post-00 generation who has just entered the workplace, they all have rich and clear memories of the Internet. The first time you go online, the first screen name, the first download link......
Do you remember who your first netizen was? Do you remember the netizen you have known for the longest time?
"When I entered the chat room, I saw a screen full of terms I didn't understand, and it was as if a new world had opened"
1999 OICQ (the predecessor of QQ) registration interface
Lao Zhang, a 60-year-old citizen of Zhengzhou, remembers that in 2004, he connected his home computer to dial-up Internet access for the first time, and then entered the "chat room" that was still very hot at that time. "A lot of people were new to the internet at that time, and in my opinion, it was a revolution in the way everybody could express themselves. Usually we are more disciplined at home and in the workplace, but on the Internet, everyone wears a mask and can speak freely without caring about face. ”
Because he likes fishing, the first channel he joined in the chat room was the fishing friend channel. "At that time, when I saw a screen full of terms that I had never seen before, I thought that the Internet was so amazing, it was like opening a big window. ”
QQ chat room
Dial-up Internet access
In the history of the Internet in China, BBS will always be the most important link. Internet bigwigs such as Ma Huateng, Lei Jun, Ding Lei and other Internet bigwigs were all "station friends" of major BBS back then.
Tencent founder Ma Huateng's post record on a BBS in 1996
In 2023, Tianya Community, the "China's First Forum" established for 24 years, started a "self-help campaign" because it was unable to pay the arrears of the website, bringing goods to mobilize netizens to donate, but in the end the donation goal was not achieved.
Countless BBS like the end of the world have remembered an era and left the memories of tens of thousands of netizens.
He recounted his experience of touching the Internet: "At that time, people on the Internet were still relatively simple"
The 32-year-old is already a father of two. 16 years ago, in 2008, because he liked a European football team, he met a group of like-minded partners in Baidu Tieba, and every weekend, they stayed up all night posting and communicating in Tieba.
In 2010, the stalk of "Jia Junpeng, your mother called you home for dinner" exploded on the whole network
Yin Zhuo still remembers that the original netizen in his impression was called "Boy", because of his good English, Egg Boy often translated news from various English websites, and gradually became an "expert" in the fan base. Yin Zhuo once asked Yan Zai for advice on how to learn English and how to become a "translator", "At that time, people on the Internet were still relatively simple, after all, they were hobby-related, and they wouldn't be like now, and they couldn't talk in three or two sentences." ”
Today, Yin Zhuo still maintains mutual attention with Wai Zai on Weibo, more than ten years have passed, Woo Zai has already become the operator of a professional media company, Yin Zhuo has also joined a foreign trade company, and is gradually promoted to the head of the department. Although he has long stopped contacting netizens, he still remembers the English of "barb" on the football field, "overhead kick, a shot higher than the head is a barb, he taught me".
Following in the footsteps of netizens, he applied for a university and "apprenticed" in the game, where he encountered early online fraud
Because of the free nature of the Internet and its powerful search function, it is easy for everyone to find people who are far away but have the same hobbies as themselves.
30-year-old Ma Xiao's online memory is a little different from others. 12 years ago, he was keen to "quarrel" with netizens on the Internet, of course, this "quarrel" is not really a quarrel, but an "impromptu 1V1" as a rap music lover, that is, everyone plays a one-minute rap Freestyle at will, and the two sides comment on each other.
Screenshot of an audio chat room from 2011
Ma Xiao said that 12 years ago, rap music was "the non-mainstream of the non-mainstream" in the eyes of ordinary people, and 17-year-old Ma Xiao joined a live audio channel through an online forum and began the "road of rap".
After meeting a college student who often studied with each other, Ma Xiao followed his footsteps and enrolled in a university in Sichuan Province, where the two met successfully. It's just that the friendship on the Internet is still a little different from reality, and after graduation, I gradually lost contact, and I changed from a so-called rebel youth to a migrant worker. ”
In 2009, a netizen wrote lyrics through text for "freestyle"
Entering the millennium, Chinese mainland ushered in the explosion of online games, and a large number of emerging companies such as Shanda, Kingsoft, and NetEase jumped to top enterprises through online games.
35-year-old Lin Yu remembers that in 2005, he worshipped a "master" in an online game with the theme of "Journey to the West", because in this game, apprenticeship can make him level up quickly, and at the same time, both parties can get game currency rewards, Lin Yu even generously handed over the game login password to this "master", so that he can help him "level up" in his free time.
However, 2 days after sharing the password, Lin Yu found that all the game coins on his account had been transferred, and the contact information of "Master" was not found. "It's the earliest Internet fraud, because of that experience, I have never been deceived on the Internet again. Lin Yu recalled.
The "apprenticeship" interface in an online game
"Black talk" has become a favorite Internet meme for young people in the new era
After the outbreak of the mobile Internet, Generation Z also ushered in their first experience of the Internet.
“cqy”“kl”“dbq”“ssfd”...... Seeing these words, I am afraid that even the post-90s generation will call themselves "old people". With the diversification of the Internet and the interweaving of various subcultures, interest communities have gradually formed, and "black talk" has become a favorite Internet meme for young people in the new era.
Netizens who are "looking for a partner" on social media
22-year-old Wang Ling, the first netizen is her music festival "partner". In November 2023, she found a friend from the Douban group who is also a fan of a certain musician, and they made an appointment to meet at a music festival that was about to be held in Hangzhou.
"The scene of the music festival is relatively chaotic, and it is much more convenient to have a companion," on the day of the music festival, she and this netizen were like friends who had not seen each other for a long time, chatting very speculatively, and they also made an appointment to meet again at the next music festival. "Turning netizens into real friends, the city has my own memories little by little. ”
Call: Do you remember your first netizen and please share your internet-exclusive memories
The 30-year history of China's Internet is the youth of many people, and it is also the memory of many people. Along the network cable, we connected the relationship with strangers, turning passers-by who we didn't know into friends who hugged together for warmth. Do you remember your first netizen and the first time you went online......... What other interesting stories do you have about the Internet? Feel free to leave a message and share your exclusive Internet memories.
Source: Dahe Daily Yu Video Editor: Yu Xin