cross-posted from: https://lemmy.capebreton.social/post/497698

In 1994, Ted Leonsis was the head of the new media marketing firm he created, Redgate Communications, spun out six years earlier from a CD-ROM based computer shopping business. Redgate dealed in digital media—sometimes called new media—new territory in the marketing world. And he was pretty good at it. That year, he went out to lunch with one his investment bankers, Dan Case. Case mentioned that his brother Steve was working at a small internet company looking to bring internet services to the mainstream. They had only just finished rebranding to a new name, with a new purpose, America Online.

  • @[email protected]English
    35•1 year ago

    To be honest, if I could go back in time for a day or two. I would go back to 1994 and find a nice cozy internet Cafe to log into AOL and chat with my friends. The interface is super dated for today’s standards but I miss it so much. I still use their sound notifications on my phone

          • GreyBeardEnglish
            9•1 year ago

            As another commenter mentioned, the 90s as peak Reaganomics, the war on drugs were destroying poor neighborhoods, and prescription drug abuse was skyrocketing. Reaganomics were robbing the middle class of what little wealth they had. The war on drugs was ensuring that poor families were being destroyed. Prescription drug over prescription as feeding families directly to the war on drugs.

            That’s the 90s I remember. The entire system had been broken to make as many people as possible poor, and keep them there.

          • @demletEnglish
            1•1 year ago

            Very different…

      • TimeSquirrel
        14•1 year ago

        90s “prosperity” was entirely fake, still being driven by the “reaganomics” of the 80s, and were the peak before the long, drawn out collapse you’re seeing now that actually started in the 70s but we had managed to stave off. 9/11 was the beginning of the end.

    • wjrii
      5•1 year ago

      The interface is super dated for today’s standards but I miss it so much.

      I still remember “AOL for DOS,” which was really just the core functionality of the Windows alternative “GEOS,” nerfed to only allow the AOL app to run. Teenage me had a guild on Neverwinter Nights and everything. Topped out at 8 people, IIRC.