Remembering: Student.net

Back in my early days of Internet browsing (1996), before the dawning of  ICQ, IM, and IRC in my life, I happened upon Student.net and received my first taste of online penpal making.

What an amazing website Student.net turned out to be. There were irreverent and partially useful features--like Yenta Matchmaker option, and a format letter to email a message to mom. What about a reject-o-matic to spoof a rejection letter and send it to a friend for grins and giggles?

It was a lot of fun and pretty much the only website I visited for about two to three months after the newness and excitement of X-Files fan websites faded.

Those were the years when insane website backgrounds, illegible scrolling text, and trailing cursors were all the rage. Yahoo! Personals was merely gaining a presence back then. Excite and AskJeeves where THE search engines. This is back when AOL used to mail floppy disks (not CDs) for people to sign up to their service. NetZero hadn't come out yet. Dial-up took FOREVER to connect, and phone charges went through the roof in homes everywhere.

I remember fondly that I met a penpal on Student.net who was originally from Russia but resided in Seattle. I used to drink cheap rose while typing my messages to him late on Saturday nights while watching Poltergeist the Legacy, while he complained about the Lenin statue in Seattle. He said something once to the effect of: I left my country where they tore down those statues and here, in a free country they erect a statue to his honor. I think I liked the fact that he also encountered cultural shock in the US, since we were both immigrants.

I haven't thought about this in years. And years. What brought it all back was something I read from The Oatmeal about his new assistant's christmas tree, which linked to something else where a mention was made about a Lenin statue holiday lighting ceremony.

I thought, wow, where have I heard about a Lenin statue before? I took a look at the map on the Facebook event page, and realized it was in Seattle. And it brought it all back to me. Just like that.

Funny, considering I've been to Seattle once (a city I fell in love with) and completely missed the Stalin statue altogether! I would definitely add it to my most-see list if I ever make it back.

Now we have Facebook and email, which make it so easy to keep in touch with people from school, and other people we meet, even if we move a lot.

It's fascinating seeing how our need to meet socially, evolved by allowing us ways and means to do so through computers.I look back fondly on what Student.net was able to do for a generation of folks which were just beginning to socialize online. Just like Student.net went by the wayside, so have other more recent portals, like Myspace.

I don't remember my penpal's name, but he obviously made an impression on me back then. There's been many hundreds of people that I've chatted with and befriended online through the years since that first discovery. I remember some fondly, and wonder what ever became of them. Many others I've forgotten through the passing of time. Wherever you all may be, God speed dear fellows, and thank you for spending some of your online time with me.