45 Years of the Internet: An Early Adopter’s Inside Story
I’ve been dialing into the online world since 1980. That’s 45 years of watching the internet evolve from Bulletin Board Services running at 300 baud to AI-powered systems that would’ve seemed like pure science fiction back then. Not many people can say they were there when it all started—and I’m here to share what that journey looks like from the inside.
Here’s the thing: I didn’t wake up a few years ago and decide to be interested in technology. I’ve always been a nerd. If I was a character in The Breakfast Club, I’d be the nerd. And that nerd obsession with technology is what led me to fall in love with the Tandy Radio Shack catalog back in 1978.
How It All Started: The TRS-80 and the Dream of Personal Computing
In 1978, the world’s first personal computer sat proudly displayed in that catalog: the TRS-80. I HAD to have one.
The closest I’d come to computing at that point was learning punch cards for the Cobol machine at high school—and I hated programming. But I had a hunger for technology that no amount of discouragement could kill. By 1980, I’d saved enough money from slinging pizzas and making sub sandwiches at the Northbrook Court food court to buy my own TRS-80.
My mother asked: “What are you going to do with a computer?!”
She didn’t understand back then. But she does now. When I encouraged her to start a travel blog more than 15 years ago, she took it seriously. Today, her YouTube channel has over 35 million views. (Check out her work at travelswithsheila.com.)
The TRS-80: 4K of RAM and a Cassette Tape Drive
The base model TRS-80 I bought cost around $600. That was a serious investment for a teenager in 1980.
It had a black and white display, 4K of RAM, and a cassette player for storage. Yes, you read that right—a cassette player. No floppy disk. No hard drive. You’d save your programs and data onto a cassette tape like you were recording music.
A few months later, I invested in a coupler modem. This was the gateway drug to the online world—but the online world of 1980 looked nothing like the internet we know today. We were dialing into Bulletin Board Services (BBSes) at 300 baud. To put that in perspective: a single baud is one bit per second. Most people today have at least 100 Mbps internet speed—that’s approximately 12,500,000 baud. So yes, it was incredibly, painfully slow. But it was all we had, and we were grateful for it.
The Evolution: From 300 Baud to Broadband
Over the years that followed, I watched the internet speed up exponentially. I upgraded from 300 baud to 1200 baud, then 2400 baud, 14,400 baud, 28,800 baud, and eventually cable internet. But it was those early years on the BBSes that hooked me.
BBSes predate the commercial internet by years. Computer enthusiasts would set up host software on their computers and make them available for others to dial in, just like I described. Some could handle two to four simultaneous connections. The more advanced ones could handle up to sixteen at a time. Once connected, you’d navigate menus to access message boards, text-based online games, and software downloads. It was glorious. And I was there from the beginning.
In the years that followed, I became deeply embedded in pioneering online services: CompuServe, America Online (AOL), Delphi, GEnie, Prodigy, and The Sierra Network. But it all started with that TRS-80 in 1980 and a connection running at 300 baud.
The Hardware: A Window into the Era
I recently found a photo of my setup from around 1981. It’s remarkable what I was working with.
The photo shows my bedroom—my record collection, a cork board, my cassette player and speaker all visible in the background. But the real story is what’s surrounding the computer itself. By this time, I’d purchased the “expansion interface” for my TRS-80, which bumped my RAM from a meager 4K to a whopping 256K. That was a game-changing upgrade. I’d also invested in a 5.25-inch external floppy disk drive (a massive improvement over cassette storage) and a red and black box to store my floppy disks. And there’s a Centronix dot matrix printer—slow as molasses, taking a minute or longer to print a single page of text.
This was the hardware of the future, and I owned it.
Why This Matters Now
You might be wondering: why does this 45-year journey matter? Because I’ve lived through every major inflection point in internet history. I’ve seen the shift from dial-up to broadband, from text-based interfaces to graphical web browsers, from desktop computing to mobile devices, and now to AI systems that can think and write.
Most people today have never known a world without the internet. Many didn’t experience the early web. But I did. And that perspective—having seen the internet evolve from Bulletin Boards to AI—gives me a unique vantage point on what’s coming next.
When people ask me about AI or the future of technology, I don’t worry the way some do. I’ve seen technology evolve in ways that seemed impossible at each stage, and yet here we are. I’ve adapted every single time. The question isn’t whether technology will keep changing—it will. The question is: are you paying attention to the signals?
So here’s my challenge to you: How long have you been online? What was your first computer? When did you first dial into the internet? The answer to that question reveals a lot about your relationship with technology and your readiness for what comes next.
If you want to stay ahead of the curve on where AI and technology are truly heading—not the hype, but the real shifts—my upcoming book AI Made Simple breaks down 45 years of lessons into actionable insights. You can also catch my podcast, where I dive deeper into these stories and explore what the future actually looks like. And if you want my latest takes delivered straight to your inbox, subscribe to my newsletter below.
