Believe it or not I was online back then, albeit it for a short while. Although I spoke to people around the world, it was primarily through a server via General Electric named "GEnie." It was purely text back then of course, with a dial up modem. I had access to 40 "Channels" that were essentially chat rooms. There was a reference to a "CB handle" (as in trucker) for the user name. I can't remember exactly what they called it. Since my Father worked for the company we were the testers before they began to sell the product. I think not soon after CompuServe came around and basically created something bigger and better than GEnie.

Prior to that, as a yute, I remember my Father had the really old Modem where you took the phone and placed it in the female end before dialing. We would "Call" the computer in Maryland (we lived in Virginia) and it would spit out info through the printer (no monitor.) There was a program I remember that gave you stats on how much time you spent sleeping, eating, on the toilet etc, based on the age you put in. All very primitive now, but back then it was a big deal. I was around 11 or so I think...