"I have usernames older than you."

[iveyline@mastodon.social]

@Natasha_Jay Who actually cares?

[lobingera@chaos.social]

@Natasha_Jay "On the internet, nobody knows you are 50."

[mxalba@blahaj.zone]

@Natasha_Jay@tech.lgbt

My ICQ UIN was 456629 but at some point it was stolen from me because it was a highly coveted 6 digit UIN so I made a new one which was 7869244 and those numbers are indeed etched into my memory.

[dancingtreefrog@mastodon.social]

@Natasha_Jay
That's OK. I'm older than the internet, part of the generation that invented skateboards... Silly people!

[johns_priv@mastodon.social]

@Natasha_Jay At my previous job I was joking about this with some youngsters.

My Hotmail account was created in '97, is older than some of them.

This was our place before it was theirs too.

[1bit@chaos.social]

@Natasha_Jay
ICQ # 22076520 ‍️

[rom255@mastodon.social]

@Natasha_Jay Still a seven-digit ICQ number

[rainbowpink@snug.moe]

@Natasha_Jay this mentality has always annoyed me. what am i doing online? same thing you’re doin! mind your business!

[gokushrm@mastodon.social]

@Natasha_Jay lol.. The place I'm living is older than you . Social media life

[takiro@meow.social]

@Natasha_Jay
They think the internet was invented yesteryear by vibe coders, while we were already creating ugly websites with stolen GIFs in notepad in 2000 and earlier.

[nafithebear@snaggletooth.life]

@Natasha_Jay I still remember my ICQ UIN as well. it will probably the last 9 numbers I say before my death and no one will understand it.

[glamazon@cyberpunk.lol]

@Natasha_Jay I'm so cyber I piss neon and spit chrome. I cut my teeth in a time when you would swap floppies and underground zines. I would try to learn every machine I touched, from the C64 at my friends house because his dad was an enthusiast, to the Tandy I inherited from a dead grandfather I had never met. No modem, no wifi, no youtube tutorial, no money. Just technology that was facinating to someone who just prior had been living on a mountain reading outdated encyclopedias by kerosene lamp, and only listening to the radio for 15 minutes a day because batteries were hard to get.

A computer was science fiction still, something from the movies. The ICU message notification still can set my brain on fire with anticipation. I keep my notifications off now, because no amount of push messages or advertising will ever compare to the sound that meant the person who I could actually be myself with had arrived online.

[dertseha@dice.camp]

@Natasha_Jay
As I like to phrase it: Younger ones grew up in the internet. I grew up /with/ the internet.

And, since we're showing off ICQ numbers: UIN 516801 here

[noondlyt@hellions.cloud]

@Natasha_Jay

Amen

[lmorchard@masto.hackers.town]

@Natasha_Jay icq 492905 uhoh

[bnys@lasersword.club]

@Natasha_Jay these ipad babies need to stfu

[staceycornelius@zeroes.ca]

@Natasha_Jay This dude planning to vaporize at 40? If not, I have some bad news.

[elbeetoots@mastodon.nl]

@lobingera @Natasha_Jay "...until you start posting memes from 2006..."

[ethicalprofessor@mstdn.social]

@Natasha_Jay

I expect thriller_instinct is busy crying to mommy now.

[crowbriarhexe@tech.lgbt]

@Glamazon @Natasha_Jay oh I FEEL that last part especially