I strongly believe that the Internet is one of the greatest inventions that humankind has ever created. I know the value and power of the Internet now as an adult, but as an 8-year-old kid, I just saw a place to find games to play. Like most children of the 80’s and 90’s, computers and the Internet defined the leisure moments of my childhood.  The first computer that entered my home was a Compaq desktop that ran Windows 98. I was thrilled! While my mom and eldest sister saw a machine to efficiently complete their assignments on, I saw an arcade.

Having a computer that the whole family shared was challenging at times, because we all had to wait our turn, but I learned to be patient; I had no choice considering that I have a Jamaican mother who strictly enforced the rules. Anyone with an assignment due soon had priority over computer use. Being an elementary school kid with less frequent assignments and no term papers to worry about, I spent a lot of time waiting until everyone was asleep so that I could get the computer to myself.

I spent my time playing every little game I could find. I don’t even remember what they were. I usually did this on the weekend, late at night until I was sleepy and ready to go to bed. But there was one night that this weekend routine didn’t go over very well.

My mother was a RN, or registered nurse, and often worked on-call. She was often called into work via the landline phone (pre-cellphone era). One night she missed that call because of me, and long story short, I was banned from the computer.

Being banned from the computer was tough. I still read books and went outside to play, but something about the computer was captivating to me. Even today, I still find myself getting lost in my work for an online project. I’ll check the time and realize a few hours passed and I’m still working on the code for the interface of my website or a web application for an assignment.

What I didn’t know at that time as a kid was how essential computers would be to my life and the lives of those around me. This includes my mother, who (justifiably) banned me from the computer 19 years ago. Nowadays, she sends YouTube and WhatsApp videos to me constantly about the latest health scare.

After finally getting a new Compaq desktop that ran Windows XP and DSL in the household about 7 years later (it was a miserable time waiting for a YouTube video to load), I got much further in my exploration of the Internet. I streamed music, shows, played the occasional game, but most of all, I was on social networking or forum websites. I was reading articles, writing blogs (I had about 5 Tumblr blogs), making friends in forums, and chatting in AOL and MSN and Yahoo messenger with my friends from school. It was amazing how in that short amount of time (the span of about 7 years) that I went from just playing games on a dial-up Internet connection, to crafting a whole social ecosystem online. Having grown up in such a time, to see that transition take place, was much more important than I realized then.

I could go on a “these kids today don’t know” rant, but every older generation sings that song. It’s a part of the circle of life. It will be interesting to see how this upcoming generation of adolescents interact with the Internet and what they can accomplish in the process. I know that an early start with computer use or Internet use greatly impacted me, to the point where the desire to learn how it worked and learn its languages never left me. I’m sure others have experienced the same.