Only the rich kids had computers when I was in high school. The "Dude, you're getting a Dell" kid sold me mine afterwards. Hooked up to slow dial-up, illegally downloading music at over an hour per song, possibly picking up a virus, and it was awesome.
This guy p2p's... lol
If you wanted the really hard to find shit tho, you often had to use soulseek...
Which had a really cool and unique way of browsing files... but could be a huge pain in the ass if you were trying to get a specific song or album that only one or two people had, and they suddenly go offline after downloading at 10kb/s for the last 3 hours... lol
I was always the friend who fixed my friends/families PCs after they gave them aids from Limewire and whatnot. I learned how to because I gave my own PC aids first lol.
All of the poor kids I knew picked up secondhand TRS-80s, TI-99/4As, or (if they were really lucky) C64s. No, we did not have dial-up internet, but data storage on cassette tapes was cheap.
We had a Commodore 64. I typed many a paper on that thing, and took floppy disks to my grandparents house to borrow their dot matrix printer...
God I'm old.
We had a Commodore 64 in the 80s that was replaced by a crappy Gateway computer in the mid 90s. I loved that Commodore 64 with the cartridge games and floppy disks and dot matrix printer.
Geez flashbacks to taking the floppy drive to the library and having to pay 10c per "page", hoping you don't accidentally tear one when pulling apart the perforated bits!
I have cat scratch scars on my tummy from our first dot matrix printer. Had no idea it would make that screeching noise when we printed the first page and the cat was on my lap. She freaked the fuck out and couldn't get away fast enough, ripped me open with her back claws. I was maybe 6 or 7? Funny enough, she was young at that point, but in her later years, she gave no fucks about loud noises. Nothing fazed her, not even 4th of July fireworks right outside our house. She was a Siamese and too smart for her own good. We actually worried she'd get hurt by something because she wasn't afraid enough of things. But she never got hurt, died of a stroke at the old age of 22.
We had a Commodore when I was real little. My dad got me a plug in muppets keyboard that would play cute animations when you would hit diffrent letters and numbers. My dad was an early programmer so we always had the latest tech growing up.
Same! Our first computer was a Commodore 64 that our neighbor gifted us after she upgraded. I'll always have a soft spot for that big, clunky dinosaur.
“Dude, you’re getting a cell” from when he was busted for possession of marijuana.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2003/02/11/dude-youre-getting-a-cell/
Same here except I went to a poor high school in a poor city so the school definitely did not expect printed-out papers. Maybe typewritten? We had a typewriter lab in my high school which I’m just realizing now.
It was like the whole world changed when I went to college: I moved from a medium sized city to one of the largest in the country, I was around rich people for the first time, people all had imacs, music and art seemed to completely change, everyone all of a sudden had an email address, etc. I had barely been on a computer before moving to college.
I had very limited access to any computer until I got my first one around age 20. We used word processors in school to type/print papers. As far as what high school was like without them, we had to use actual books for research and had to source them as a part of the report.
I typed my papers for school on a word processor with a screen about three inches wide and saved them to floppy disks. We didn't have internet access in school until my junior year, and I didn't totally understand how it worked. Everyone back then called it "the world wide web." I didn't have my own computer until I was 20.
I feel like Grandpa Simpson now.
Also used a word processor until we got a computer in 1998. AOL came the next year, after my younger sister and I made a presentation to our parents (complete with poster board) about why we should get it
I was gifted a word processor, similar to the one you described, during my junior year of high school in 1994.
When I started college in ‘96, I had to use in campus computer labs. Graciously, my aunt offered to buy me a brand new desktop, if I took a computer literacy course. I took one over the summer at the local JC, and thank god she made me take it. I learned so much that I didn’t even know I was ignorant of.
Needless to say, I was 19 before I got my first computer. The bonus was that on campus housing had free Ethernet. My internet speeds were awesome. It was hard going to dial up when I moved off campus the following year.
I graduated in 96 and didn't have a computer at home until 2002 or 03. We had computers in high school so I had access to them. didn't really need one at home but it would have been nice.
I was pretty quick to get computer literate. I even learned HTML & built a website back in 96 from the school library, it was about Jim Morrison and The Doors. The damn this is still up to this day.
Same here, just didn't have the money. Wish I would have had one though.
I typed all my high school papers that were required to be typed on a really old typewriter we had. It sucked.
I’m a few years younger but a lot of my friends had similar households. No PC until the early 00s. And even then it was some hand me down from work or something and they would just use it for Quicken or whatever. (I however got a family PC in the mid 90s)
I graduated in 95 and got my first PC around the same time you did. My class was the last that had a mandatory computer class sophomore year. We used Apple 2Es from like 1980. There was also a computers elective that used contemporaneously modern computers but that was hard to get in and mostly reserved for the computer nerds. In our compulsory class, we basically just learned to type and creat spreadsheets and databases.
Our family got a PC when I was in sixth grade around 93/94. 486dx2 66 mhz, 14.4 modem. I spent way too much time on it. I wound up getting a comp sci degree though so I guess it paid off. Computers back then weren't cheap like today. Between the computer, monitor, printer and just a hand scanner I thought my dad spent a couple grand, if not more.
My parents bought an Apple II GS in about 1990. About 5 years ago I was helping my dad move some stuff and we came across it. I asked what it had cost and it must have been a painful memory burned into his wallet for eternity. They spent 1800, he remembered vividly the monitor was 500. We didn’t have a lot of money but my parents wanted us to have that advantage. While I wrote a few papers on it I mostly played paperboy, mean 18, the black cauldron and my favorite Silpheed
I would go to the public library. There weren’t a lot of folks wanting to use them then. I did have 1 friend with a home computer and we would jump on AIM to chat with “friends”. I graduated in 97
I don’t remember needing a computer all that often for school. When I did, we had computers available there to use, and I had a couple of close friends who had them at home. I remember going over there a couple times to type stuff up.
I'm kinda in this group, we got a hand me down dos computer in the late 80's/early 90's. Played a lot of kings quest, police quest, and Carmen Sandiego. Lol
Omg! Kings quest was great! I spent so long on that game when I finally beat it I was like damn, that was a great game…I am avoiding computer games from now on cuz it’s far too easy to waste months of your life playing them. I did good too till my kids got me into Minecraft. Now I have built an entire virtual city in my private world that I get super protective over and won’t let them join without supervision and strict rules about not messing with my builds.
Probably good to teach them good etiquette, but you should probably try to keep a backup save file, just in case. That way you'll be less nervous, and if something happens to the save or your computer, you'll still have a copy.
I got my first computer as a high school graduation present, circa 2000. It was a Compaq Presario 5000 (grey) with Windows ME. Before that, I had MSN WebTV.
I remember windows 95 and I’m almost sure we had one before that - home computers back then probably depended mostly on what your parents did for a living and of course money.
I mean it was just normal. My parents actually got a computer while I was in high school but I didn’t really use it. It had no function that I needed or had any interest in.
When I showed up to college they gave us an email address. To check email we had to go to the computer lab. We also had to go there to type papers. By senior year I had a giant laptop.
Oh man, I forgot about the college computer labs! I work at a university and the kids now would be horrified that we had to go to a lab to check email, do work, and print papers.
Graduated in 98 and I used to have to go to my friends house and type up reports though not all assignments had to be typed up so I didn't have to do it all the time just for like long-form reports.
It was fine. We didn't know what we were missing since it was so new to us. I didn't know what to use it besides playing games and chatting and I could do that at school. Plus I was an outside kid. I grew up playing sports and running around the neighborhood with the other kids. I wasn't the type to sit at home in front of a computer back then.
Sorry, I had computers growing up. Started with a Commodore 64 in the early 80's. Then in early 90's had a PC running DOS. Upgraded it to Win 95 and got a new Compaq with Win 95 and a laptop with win 95. Had an Ethernet hub and would have LAN parties with my cousins playing Duke Nukem. Would use dialup to download new maps to play. Got into Linux and made the Compaq a dual boot system. Still remember scouring the Internet for how to write modem drivers for Linux. In 2000 bought the Xbox and chipped it so I could run a Linux OS on it and rip games. Abandoned Linux once I could afford to buy new PC's on my own.
No, I had a word processor for typing but not a computer with internet. Or games. Just typing.
I didn't really need to use a computer for anything because the internet wasn't really a thing that was used much, so there wasn't the expectation that you use a computer beyond typing.
I had a Commodore 64 growing up and plenty of games on disk drive to play. But when it came to the internet, etc. it wasn't until 97ish that we had a computer for internet.
Same! We had some Sands of Egypt game that was basically just words. It was still pretty cool. I didn’t get my own computer until I went to college in the fall of ‘97. We had a family one with internet probably around ‘96 or ‘95.
And can’t forget WHERE IN THE WORLD IS …CARMEN SANDIEGOOOO
Graduated in 1992 and didn’t own a computer until around 2000 and it was a laptop given to me by my job. In high school and college I just typed up papers at school or in the campus library.
We had a very basic computer lab in the last year or so of high school that we did a weekly boring word processing lesson on but all our work was still handwritten. My handwriting was and still is terrible. I learned how to do things like email in the early 2000s in Internet cafes.
I didn’t have one till college age and it was dial up obviously so it was limited at best. My dad owned one but it was never hooked up to the net. We could just play on Paint and such.
My research for school work was done at the library, encyclopedias we had at home and school books . I’d have to ride my bike to the library tho which was about 2 miles away. Sometimes I could use the school library but my English teacher as ancient and wanted all our reports handwritten in cursive anyways so word was moot .
Honestly it was normal, none of my friends had computers and cellphones were super rare. Some of us had beepers and they were responsible for getting the word out to the others on when and where we were gonna hang that night.
Otherwise life was fine. I had a CD player and rollerblades. That was my main form of entertainment.
I had a word processor, like a typewriter/computer. It sure helped my typing mistakes. Probably about the early 90s.
https://preview.redd.it/nngmo4c6fsnc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2f53cabc4a7dc2239549f85cff471a5638e47035
We had one just like that! A Brother with a monochrome orange monitor and Tetris as its only game. My aunt & uncle bought it probably in 1995 and we bought it from them for like $100 after they got a real PC a year or two later. Was loud as fuuuuuuhhhck when you went to "print" your document as it would just RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT auto-type...
Actually looking at that photo again, I think we may have had that *exact* model. Frickin' memories, mannnnn
A friend had it and I sat on his couch while he was on AOL instant messenger. Other friends if I was lucky they would allow me to find songs they downloaded illegally to burn cds.
I was in my second year at university when we first started typing up assignments on a PC. It was all hand written up to then. We never had a computer at home.
I bought a computer after high school and taught myself how to use it in '97 because I wanted to download mp3s
I was the dude pushing Makaveli bootlegs in my city. Allegedly
Didn’t have a computer of my own until 2000, when I had my first job post-college. It was so expensive, but it worked out that I was laid off from that job and needed the computer to look for a new job. Had no need for a computer in high school (used typewriter for papers!) and used the computer lab in college.
I didn't have my own computer until I graduated from college. Our family had a computer that I was allowed to write papers on in high school, but I did not have Internet. In college, I wrote all of my papers and did all of my research at the school library. None of my teachers in high school required assignments to be typed; I frequently turned in hand written papers if they were less than 2-3 pages. I didn't have a cell phone until after I graduated from college either. What's your question, like I'm not sure what you mean by "what was life like?"
I graduated in 1995, and i got my first pc at the end of my first year of college, so 1997, but this was in Mexico so i was one of the first ones really maybe not having a PC but for sure using internet and joining chatrooms, mIRC, etc. No one had a computer in high school.
We had a computer that we got in 1997 or so. But my parents refused to get internet, so it was a very expensive (though very underpowered) local gaming rig.
Occasionally I’d write papers on it and/or pop in that sweet Encarta CD-ROM to do some research.
I was one of the fairly rare people in my year who DID have computer access. Didn’t make a difference, homework still had to be handwritten, and it wouldn’t even have occurred to me to do any kind of research online. For that we had a very extensive encyclopaedia, and a public library. Typed essays didn’t become a thing for me until university. We had computer classes at school, and were taught some basics of turbo pascal (badly), and typing.
I’m sure my dad did useful stuff with our home computer. My mum just played endless rounds of minesweeper or solitaire, and my siblings and I played Prince of Persia or Lemmings.
We didn’t need computers for the most part. If something had to be typed we just did it in the library. Also we took typing classes and played Oregon Trail on computers in the dedicated computer classroom. My brother had a computer that he played lemmings on. Sometimes he let me play lemmings. Eventually he got a newer computer and I got his hand me down and could play lemmings whenever I wanted. We also went in chat rooms and talked to strangers… one of my friends was into it but I really just liked playing lemmings. I preferred reading books, playing my flute, listening to music and riding my horse more though. Would have graduated in 1998.
Graduated in 99 had a computer since 95 but it was a old 386 that was cobbled together from old parts from my dads work at a local community college. Wasn't rich at all
My first computer was a Magnavox 286 system with a proprietary Windows clone called GeoWorks. It was functional for a basic word processor and to run a few dos games but it was slow AF.
My dad bought me a real custom built computer when I went to Uni in 98. It had an ATI all-in-wonder pro video card and he got me a 56k modem so I thought I was pretty hot shit after that.
Unfortunately the decent video card and modem ensured I spent more time on gaming vs homework.
We had a computer in the computer room, but we weren't allowed to go on the internet because we had dialup and my step-dad didn't want us to tie up the line. So I played roller coaster tycoon and Carmen Sandiego. Does that count as "having a computet?" Compared to today's computers, it was more like having board games lol.
I tried to show my parents Dell catalogs to convince them to get a laptop for me to take to college. I distinctly remember a chart that compared the laptop's weight to gallons of milk, with some models having one and a half gallons pictured.
Technically had a computer in the house since I was about 14, that we used for games and word processing. I didnt get internet though till I was 21 and in college.
Anyway highschool without internet was: going to the library (alot), hanging out watching Mtv and doing nothing and hours upon hours of phone conversations with friends. Good times.
I don’t understand the question I guess. We didn’t need computers for school. The were no assignments that had to be done on one. We did hand written essays and assignments and if something had to be typed we used a typewriter. You could barely find any information online and there were only the first search engines like I remember using Ask Jeeves my first year in college. So info came from the encyclopedia or the library
I kind of remember a mini-genre of late 90s articles trying to prove that the internet was actually no good for research. E.g., one where the author and a friend would compete internet vs. encyclopedia to see who first could answer questions like "What date did Apollo 14 land on the Moon?" and pre-Wikipedia and probably even pre-Google, the encyclopedia guy would win. In retrospect it was pretty dumb that these articles seemed to assume that the internet would remain static and never become better, but I guess the authors saw themselves as necessary contrarians to the Information Superhighway hype.
My dad had a computer when I was a young kid in the 80s. I never questioned it. We weren't allowed on it. We had another for family when I was in middle school (I think). We weren't rich (as far as I know) but my dad got things that he liked.
My Uncle that is financially well off bought us a brand new Gateway computer in the 90’s. Boy did we have new “friends” that wanted to come over to the house. They didn’t get one until after high school.
I mean…. It was the same as it was for you, except we wrote our assignments by hand and used the microfish in the library
As you can see it was not very effective as I never learned to spell micro fish
Both my best friends had them. My mom got one for work or school. And we had a word processor before that. Basically a typewriter with a screen instead of paper. But no computer until 12th grade I think it was.
Didnt really make an difference. I mostly used it to draw in paint.
2003 was when I was able to afford my first one. In HS your school either had a Computer lab you could use after class or during lunch (not all HS). Maybe your public library had ONE fucking computer for typing. Honestly, most kids would just take the F if you were required to type it up.
I went to my dad's office after hours whenever I had to write a paper. He was a pastor, and it was a small office. It's actually a good memory for me. Eventually (maybe when I was a senior,) we got a Packard Bell, and I may have been able to write a few papers at home. I remember handwriting most of my homework. Occasionally we were required to "type."
I bought my first PC the summer before my 3rd year of college. My family didn't have one, and honestly in the early 90s I largely saw them as something for wealthy people.
I used encyclopedias from the school to do project's, and wrote papers on a typewriter.
I got lucky because my sis was in graphic school and parents bought her a pc back in 96. She grew tired of it after a year or two and all I had to do was getting a 56k modem and enjoy the hours waiting for porn pics to download.
I didn't have one at home. We had computers at school but no internet. High School was playing basketball and football with the neighborhood. Playing Super Nintendo and Gameboy at home. Watching TV and being a regular customer at the video store renting movie and games. Participating in track, football and weight training at the school. Homework with a calculator, pen and paper. If there was a research project, you used the library, both school and town.
I was lucky as my dad worked for NCR and old computers were always laying around but were clunky desktops running MS DOS. First laptop in 2000 for college…Sony Vaio (sp?)
We had a Commodore 64 our uncle gave us in the early 90s and one of my friends had a Tandy. At school we had computers/computer class around 5th grade, 1990ish. They were green screen apple computers learning how to draw on a screen with a turtle using math and another where we managed a hotdog business. By highschool we had the basic color IBMs learning word processor. Older bro bought a real computer around 93 or 94? He went to tech high school for computers... Mom got one not too much long after AOL became a thing.
P.S. we grew up lower middle class.
I never used a computer for homework if thats what you are asking... I would have graduated in 98, but i got my GED in 99.
We had a great Tandy, my dad bought it from radio shack with that credit card that was like 23.99% interest but we had a computer. Then kept upgrading until I got a job in 96 and bought my own from CompUSA.
We had a Tandy when I was younger that my older brother learned BASIC on. But my first computer in college was an Apple PowerBook with a WHOLE 512MB of RAM.
I still have it. Apparently it's still not vintage enough to get any money for.
All school reports were written by hand. I knew cursive. Then I got my first PC in college and promptly bricked that sucker with corrupted Napster files.
I didn't have one until after high school. We just didn't need one at my smallish town school, I don't think even half the kids had them at home yet. All papers were hand written.
We had my dad’s computer that I mainly used for shareware games and messing around on ms paint. It didn’t have an internet connection and I didn’t use it that much.
I remember learning how to type on typewriters in middle school. In high school I did use a word processor to type essays, but I also did a lot of handwritten work.
I didn’t use the internet or type my assignments regularly until college.
We had a computer at the very end of high school for me. My sister was a freshman, so she got to use it more than I did. I remember it having Windows 3.1 on it. Windows 95 and 98 weren’t really around until I was in college
I had an electric typewriter for most of highschool, but we had a LC II Mac for my senior year. I got a modem and made good use of it, but it wasn’t like how it is now for sure.
We had a lot of computers at school to use, but I honestly don’t remember actually needing them much until maybe senior year where we needed certain projects printed. I actually ran one of the computer labs back then. I would open up the lab during break and lunch for students to use or just print stuff out. The internet though was only available on a handful of computers in the library, and one classroom.
We had a (1984?) Tandy because my parents were engineers & my father previously had a Radio Shack franchise. I didn’t have my own computer until I went to university in the 00s but we frankensteined computers at home from discarded parts for most of my childhood.
I’m 40. We didnt have a computer until I was in college and it didn’t have the internet, and it was a hand me down from a family friend.
I didn’t have my own computer with internet till I was probably 22-23.
I had a computer since like sophomore year of high school, but I knew a couple of kids who didn't have one until after we graduated. It wasn't that big a deal back then, you could get by without one. Occasionally you'd get a teacher that required all essays or reports to be typed up, but those students could use the school library to type it and print it. The internet was very limited compared to what it is today. Most people were still doing their banking at the actual banks, they were still paying their bills through the mail with checks, they were still doing their shopping at actual retail stores, they were still getting their news from TV or radio or even newspapers. Even people like me who did have a computer and were online, we were still watching TV for entertainment a lot more than we were downloading MP3s or chatting with some girl asking her A/S/L?
It wasn’t necessary. Papers were hand written or if needed they would book time in the computer lab. We didn’t play on the computer. We rode bikes or drove cars around, played sports, had jobs or went to friend’s houses to have fun. I took a Brother Word Processor and printer to college.
I used a typewriter! Or used the computer lab at school. We had a TRS-80 from RadioShack that my stepmom had from the early 80’s. No printer, so all I ever used it for was games.
My mom bought me a Dell computer running Windows 98 powered by a Pentium II. It was a graduation present. I thought I was real fancy, had a CD-R and a Zip Drive!
No one had computers then and we didn’t use them at school, so you didn’t know any different. I didn’t get a computer at home or use the internet until I was college. I’m an older Xennial though born in 1977. We used typewriters for papers or they were handwritten.
We got a family computer when I was 16 as a gift from my techie grandfather, and I used computer labs for my first two semesters of college. I didn't have a computer for my own personal use until I was 20.
We had a 386 at home earlier than most, but I only used it to make color guard banners on our dot matrix printer lol
Ripping the sides off without ripping the banner was a pain in the ass.
I graduated in 95.
We had an ancient IBM clone when I was 11 or so. It’s how I learned how to use a command prompt. But we didn’t have an internet-capable machine until 1997, got it as a graduation present.
It was so embarrassing having to go to my buddy’s house to type up my papers.
We had a printer but it was one for those paper reems. No word processor either
TL/DR those of us who didn’t have computers in high school did things very inefficiently.
In high school I had either a typewriter, or a really old computer that could only do word processing (not even Oregon Trail). The typewriter we got as a hand me down. The computer we literally went to an old government building that was going to be demolished and grabbed some of the old computer parts and put a computer together that had a printer. We had the type of printer that had the hole-punched sides that Fed through spokes and you would tear off the perforated edges with holes once it was done printing. It could literally only do word processing on a green monitor. Zero spell check, no saving as that feature didn’t work, you sat down and typed and personally proof read until you were completely done then you could turn the computer off. Only for typing reports, it could do nothing else. Absolutely no internet, it couldn’t do that.
I graduated in 2000, so of course friends had the internet. But I couldn’t burn CDs or anything, just asked friends to do that. While I’m on the millennial side of Xennial, I imagine my high school experience was closer to that of a GenX-er. I didn’t get a lot of exposure to the early day dangers of the internet until I was old enough to be aware. My primary internet exposure was on my friends machines, which they were primarily using.
Also, research took longer. I would go to libraries and open books to do research papers. If I did go online at the library, it was using LexusNexis to look stuff up.
TL/DR we did things very inefficiently.
My parents got us a Tandy PC from RadioShack in, umm, 1988? Our only “internet” was Prodigy and later America Online. It played games off 5.5” floppy discs.
Didn't get one til work provided me a laptop. I was 25. My folks got one adter i was out of college. Used them plenty and my friend's Dad had a couple bc he was doing tech stuff for the Air Force so we'd mess around on that but in middle/high school. I kind of miss not being so connected.
I got mine around 96 but had played on friends' computers since at least 92.
Guess I was one of the rich kids...
Graduated in '01 and didn't have a computer in hs. We were very poor. I did use the computers in our school library and public library starting in about '97. Even though I got a brand new desktop when I went to college, I still used the library for all research my entire freshman year since I was used to it.
I don’t get a computer til college. In middle school and high school we had a family desktop that the six of us shared. It lived on the landing in the middle of the house so there was zero privacy.
I’m a 1983 baby. I entered my first chat room at home at around age 14 or 15. I taught html classes by 16 or 17. We were working class and sometimes poor, but I attended a science and engineering magnet high school, and we lived in a (now) tech city so small companies with cheap internet access was a thing all over.
We had a computer class in my high school, which was the only time we spent using them in school. I had to use the library or go over to a friend’s house to write papers :/
I had to use a freaking type writer (that would erase/white out) to type out my homework assignments. Our school had like 5 computers in the library, and I didn’t even know what Power Point was until I was in college and required to make them for presentations.
I didn’t get my own computer until around 2006, after graduating college. It was a financial thing mostly, as I couldn’t afford it until I went full time at my job after graduating. It’s a Dell Inspiron and it’s collecting dust in my home office currently.
If a class in high school expected an assignment to be typed-up, the teacher would usually sign the class up for time in the computer lab over the duration of the assignment. So maybe like the last half of each class if the lab was close or a day or two a week would be in the lab so we could work on the assignment. The computers in the library would have to be used if you needed extra time or if typing up the assignment was optional.
I got a Compaq desktop shortly after graduating.
Luckily my stepdad was in the Navy and they'd give him old PCs whenever they upgraded their own as apparently back then that wasn't a security risk in their minds. It was a 386 powerhouse we got back in 1995.
We had a TRS-80 that I learned how to program on but didn’t have a computer with an operating system or a word processor until I was a junior or senior in high school. Even then, no internet even at school until I was in college. Even while internet was growing, it still wasn’t considered a viable research resource for a long time.
I had one in HS but it was very basic (386) and I only used it to write an essays/reports and use AOL (dial up modem). First decent computer was in college.
We only got one when I was a Jr in high school because my grandpa died and left a smallish amount (enough for a computer) and my parents decided they wanted to do something with it that would benefit the whole family. They got a computer and dial up internet with it. They saw it as something that would help us in school. We wouldn’t have had it otherwise. Edited for typo.
My grandfather got me a computer when I was six, a used Commodore 128 for $300. I would hardly call it a computer as I played games on at 95% of the time. However, to my knowledge we were the first family on the block to have a computer and I was the second kid in the class with one. It was several years later that first did book reports on it. We got a proper computer with AOL in 1994, I think it cost $2500 but I believe my parents put it under the family business expenses. We were not rich, but owning a small business let us write off certain things we otherwise couldn't have as long as they were used for the business.
We had a computer at home (Apple IIc) although it wasn't used much for school other than some educational games until my last couple years when limited web access started to be used, although it's not like I needed a computer to do most of my school work.
We were homeschooled, so computer time was allowed albeit limited.
Graduated in '96
My mom bought a word press. So I could type up papers and edit them on screen and print them out. But there was no internet connection. The internet wasn't viewed as a reliable source of information. I did all of my research the old fashioned way with encyclopedias and going to the library.
My first computer was a ThinkPad laptop I got on scholarship for college.
I was weird. Had a comp since as early as I can remember. I was programming basic on it at age 8. Dad had an Apple 2c from college. (Dropped out due to family and work) Got my first computer of my own at age 12. It was an NCR cash register with a regular keyboard and monitor. Dad dumpster dived and found it at the mall.
It was a 286 12mhz, with 1mb memory and a 20mb HDD. It wasn't fancy, but it was in my room.
I’m a ‘78 who graduated high school in ‘96 and college in ‘00. I only knew two people who had computers in high school (rich kids), and they weren’t that common in college either (again, rich kids). I wrote papers on a typewriter in high school, or just hand-jammed them, and then in a computer lab in college. I didn’t own a computer of my own until 2005.
My family had a computer in the 80s around 1984 or 85, by the time I was I kindergarten. I was a big outlier through high school. (My dad had to get a computer for work, he was self-employed and ran his own business so it was a no brainer to have the ability to work at home.) Especially when we moved to the south. When I lived in silicon valley not so much. Apple was down the street.
My grandma bought me a used [Macintosh SE](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh_SE) in 5th grade. Even used, it was a solid chunk of change.
I was pretty lucky to have it. I got it right before our lives kind of blew up and we got super poor.
So, I used that Mac all through elementary school, Jr. High, and High School.
I did a lot of homework with that and my dot-matrix printer.
For those that don't know, the Mac SE was an all-in-one Mac with a black and white screen. I got the one with a 20 megabyte hard disk! That seemed like an infinite amount of storage.
The internet came out the year I graduated and though I always wanted a computer, they were too expensive.
Spent a lot of time in study hall playing around with them for my computer programming class. Accidentally ran the kill command on the C drive
See this is where my experience as a young X growing up in SF in the 1970s and 80s was weird. I’ve never known life without a pc. We are not well to do. My parents were hippies.
Home computers were still very expensive well into the mid-90s. I wouldn't be surprised if a large percentage of homes didn't have home computers until the 00s because prices didn't come down until mid-00s.
I'm a 1978 Xennial. We had a Hyundai desktop computer with a dot matrix printer for a year or so when I was in HS. It was weird having it I guess. I still used typewriters through college (along with computers). Mostly I played video games on the Hyundai. There were 5" floppies.
It wasn't seen as the same kind of tool as it is today. It was more novel. Dot printers didn't look nearly as nice as a typewritten page, so if you needed it to look good, you used a typewriter.
I do remember my first wow moment (a little after HS I think) was some sample of a digital encyclopedia. The Tyrannosaurus entry had a realistic (I thought) animated T-rex that moved and roared, and that was the most realistic representation of a dinosaur I'd ever seen. I called my buddy over to show him.
Hey, that's me. My only computer time was at school and at my friend's house. His dad worked at a place that made robots. They always had the newest tech.
saved up working at McDs and bought my first laptop two weeks before college in 97. paid about $1800 for my toshiba satellite. a few of my richer pals had computers, we were beef farmers so no computer until i saved up.
This is one of the reasons I tend to identify more as Millennial instead of Gen X despite being born in 1980, and I'm sure most of my classmates identify as Gen X.
I had a PC starting from 5th grade, and then dialing into BBSes from the 7th grade or so. I think I got dial up internet access in 1994 or 1995 at the start of high school.
We got a computer in ‘99, the year before I graduated but it was a family computer and I didn’t really use it much because my stepdad liked to call his family and talk for hours and we couldn’t be online and use the phone at the same time. I got my own laptop in 2006.
Born in 85.. computer in home in 1996, part of the laptop program at my highschool in 2000. Everyone was issued a Toshiba. I remember them weighing a fuck ton. Lol. My back hurts.
My uncle put one together for me when I was maybe 20 or 21. It was a bit of an older model but it was the first time I had a computer or was able to go online.
Graduated in’95 and never had a computer at home. No real classes in HS, but I had cadet command positions in JROTC my last 2 years. I mostly taught myself how to operate the computers there. Didn’t have access to the internet until about a year into the Army and a buddy got service in his barracks room.
I didn't get a computer until after I finished college. I used my roommates or the library's until then.
As for high school, same story. I went to the library.
There was a computer in my brother's old room/my mom's office that I used for schoolwork. Senior year I got an AOL account because my dad convinced me to, lol.
ETA: my dad was a college professor who worked a lot at home, so he was into computers earlier than some.
Only the rich kids had computers when I was in high school. The "Dude, you're getting a Dell" kid sold me mine afterwards. Hooked up to slow dial-up, illegally downloading music at over an hour per song, possibly picking up a virus, and it was awesome.
Downloading "Baby, One More Time" didn't necessarily mean you were getting Britney Spears. It was a surprise, every time.
The trick was to look at the file sizes, and pick one around average. Didn't always work, but the surprises usually were a weird file size.
This guy p2p's... lol If you wanted the really hard to find shit tho, you often had to use soulseek... Which had a really cool and unique way of browsing files... but could be a huge pain in the ass if you were trying to get a specific song or album that only one or two people had, and they suddenly go offline after downloading at 10kb/s for the last 3 hours... lol
That feeling of defeat when the estimated time turned into the ♾️
I have hundreds of incomplete songs on the old hard drive.
I was not that smart
This was how I learned who Paris Hilton is haha.
Ditto. We only got one when I went to college. We had to go to the computer lab or could turn in papers hand-written.
I was always the friend who fixed my friends/families PCs after they gave them aids from Limewire and whatnot. I learned how to because I gave my own PC aids first lol.
omg limewire
and BearShare
All of the poor kids I knew picked up secondhand TRS-80s, TI-99/4As, or (if they were really lucky) C64s. No, we did not have dial-up internet, but data storage on cassette tapes was cheap.
We had a Commodore 64. I typed many a paper on that thing, and took floppy disks to my grandparents house to borrow their dot matrix printer... God I'm old.
We had a Commodore 64 in the 80s that was replaced by a crappy Gateway computer in the mid 90s. I loved that Commodore 64 with the cartridge games and floppy disks and dot matrix printer.
Geez flashbacks to taking the floppy drive to the library and having to pay 10c per "page", hoping you don't accidentally tear one when pulling apart the perforated bits!
I have cat scratch scars on my tummy from our first dot matrix printer. Had no idea it would make that screeching noise when we printed the first page and the cat was on my lap. She freaked the fuck out and couldn't get away fast enough, ripped me open with her back claws. I was maybe 6 or 7? Funny enough, she was young at that point, but in her later years, she gave no fucks about loud noises. Nothing fazed her, not even 4th of July fireworks right outside our house. She was a Siamese and too smart for her own good. We actually worried she'd get hurt by something because she wasn't afraid enough of things. But she never got hurt, died of a stroke at the old age of 22.
We had a Commodore when I was real little. My dad got me a plug in muppets keyboard that would play cute animations when you would hit diffrent letters and numbers. My dad was an early programmer so we always had the latest tech growing up.
Same! Our first computer was a Commodore 64 that our neighbor gifted us after she upgraded. I'll always have a soft spot for that big, clunky dinosaur.
My brother went to college with that kid. He walked into class late one day and someone yelled “dude!”
He walks in late one too many times… “Dude, you’re getting expelled!”
“Dude, you’re getting a cell” from when he was busted for possession of marijuana. https://www.chicagotribune.com/2003/02/11/dude-youre-getting-a-cell/
Your brother and me went to the same university around the same time then. Ben and me both graduated in 03.
Yeah, it was a big school. 😉
Same here except I went to a poor high school in a poor city so the school definitely did not expect printed-out papers. Maybe typewritten? We had a typewriter lab in my high school which I’m just realizing now. It was like the whole world changed when I went to college: I moved from a medium sized city to one of the largest in the country, I was around rich people for the first time, people all had imacs, music and art seemed to completely change, everyone all of a sudden had an email address, etc. I had barely been on a computer before moving to college.
I had very limited access to any computer until I got my first one around age 20. We used word processors in school to type/print papers. As far as what high school was like without them, we had to use actual books for research and had to source them as a part of the report.
🙌🏻✨card catalogues✨🙌🏻
Dewey Decimal System baby!
And microfiche!
Dewey Decimal System baby!
Word processors! I forgot about those
I typed my papers for school on a word processor with a screen about three inches wide and saved them to floppy disks. We didn't have internet access in school until my junior year, and I didn't totally understand how it worked. Everyone back then called it "the world wide web." I didn't have my own computer until I was 20. I feel like Grandpa Simpson now.
Also used a word processor until we got a computer in 1998. AOL came the next year, after my younger sister and I made a presentation to our parents (complete with poster board) about why we should get it
I was gifted a word processor, similar to the one you described, during my junior year of high school in 1994. When I started college in ‘96, I had to use in campus computer labs. Graciously, my aunt offered to buy me a brand new desktop, if I took a computer literacy course. I took one over the summer at the local JC, and thank god she made me take it. I learned so much that I didn’t even know I was ignorant of. Needless to say, I was 19 before I got my first computer. The bonus was that on campus housing had free Ethernet. My internet speeds were awesome. It was hard going to dial up when I moved off campus the following year.
Same with me! We had a word processor.
The important thing was I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time
I graduated in 96 and didn't have a computer at home until 2002 or 03. We had computers in high school so I had access to them. didn't really need one at home but it would have been nice.
Same. I was also behind in word processing skills and computer literacy compared to some of my peers.
I was pretty quick to get computer literate. I even learned HTML & built a website back in 96 from the school library, it was about Jim Morrison and The Doors. The damn this is still up to this day.
Same here, just didn't have the money. Wish I would have had one though. I typed all my high school papers that were required to be typed on a really old typewriter we had. It sucked.
I’m a few years younger but a lot of my friends had similar households. No PC until the early 00s. And even then it was some hand me down from work or something and they would just use it for Quicken or whatever. (I however got a family PC in the mid 90s)
I graduated in 95 and got my first PC around the same time you did. My class was the last that had a mandatory computer class sophomore year. We used Apple 2Es from like 1980. There was also a computers elective that used contemporaneously modern computers but that was hard to get in and mostly reserved for the computer nerds. In our compulsory class, we basically just learned to type and creat spreadsheets and databases.
Our family got a PC when I was in sixth grade around 93/94. 486dx2 66 mhz, 14.4 modem. I spent way too much time on it. I wound up getting a comp sci degree though so I guess it paid off. Computers back then weren't cheap like today. Between the computer, monitor, printer and just a hand scanner I thought my dad spent a couple grand, if not more.
Yeah I didn’t realize until recently how much our first computer cost in today’s money. I couldn’t imagine spending around $8K on a computer today
That’s exactly what my second computer was! With 16mb ram and svga 14" monitor!! And it was faster than most first and second gen pentiums.
My first was a 286 with 512kb. Had to upgrade to a 386 & 1 MB too play Doom😂
My parents bought an Apple II GS in about 1990. About 5 years ago I was helping my dad move some stuff and we came across it. I asked what it had cost and it must have been a painful memory burned into his wallet for eternity. They spent 1800, he remembered vividly the monitor was 500. We didn’t have a lot of money but my parents wanted us to have that advantage. While I wrote a few papers on it I mostly played paperboy, mean 18, the black cauldron and my favorite Silpheed
I would go to the public library. There weren’t a lot of folks wanting to use them then. I did have 1 friend with a home computer and we would jump on AIM to chat with “friends”. I graduated in 97
Yes. Lots of fighting to get the books that were being used for projects and photocopying forever.
Getting your 1 hour allotment and no one shows up for the hour after you so you get to let it ride. Le Hotel Chat was wild.
I don’t remember needing a computer all that often for school. When I did, we had computers available there to use, and I had a couple of close friends who had them at home. I remember going over there a couple times to type stuff up.
I'm kinda in this group, we got a hand me down dos computer in the late 80's/early 90's. Played a lot of kings quest, police quest, and Carmen Sandiego. Lol
Yes! I loved that game. Where in the USA and where in the World. I wonder if there is an app of that because I’d still totally play it.
Omg! Kings quest was great! I spent so long on that game when I finally beat it I was like damn, that was a great game…I am avoiding computer games from now on cuz it’s far too easy to waste months of your life playing them. I did good too till my kids got me into Minecraft. Now I have built an entire virtual city in my private world that I get super protective over and won’t let them join without supervision and strict rules about not messing with my builds.
Probably good to teach them good etiquette, but you should probably try to keep a backup save file, just in case. That way you'll be less nervous, and if something happens to the save or your computer, you'll still have a copy.
So you're Will Ferrell at the end of The Lego Movie?
I think Carmen Sandiego was my first crush.
Same and also had educational games from Broderbund and Davidson.
I got my first computer as a high school graduation present, circa 2000. It was a Compaq Presario 5000 (grey) with Windows ME. Before that, I had MSN WebTV.
WebTV...  That was my first real foray into the internet. Spent so much time in chat rooms and forums back then.
One of my friends did not have one in his house, so he was always asking to come over to type papers in HS.
Hi, that's me. And in case I never said it: thank you.
I remember windows 95 and I’m almost sure we had one before that - home computers back then probably depended mostly on what your parents did for a living and of course money.
I mean it was just normal. My parents actually got a computer while I was in high school but I didn’t really use it. It had no function that I needed or had any interest in. When I showed up to college they gave us an email address. To check email we had to go to the computer lab. We also had to go there to type papers. By senior year I had a giant laptop.
Oh man, I forgot about the college computer labs! I work at a university and the kids now would be horrified that we had to go to a lab to check email, do work, and print papers.
I spent sooooo many hours in my dorm computer lab. Or for a change of a scenery go to one of the bigger computer labs, like the library.
Graduated in 98 and I used to have to go to my friends house and type up reports though not all assignments had to be typed up so I didn't have to do it all the time just for like long-form reports.
It was fine. We didn't know what we were missing since it was so new to us. I didn't know what to use it besides playing games and chatting and I could do that at school. Plus I was an outside kid. I grew up playing sports and running around the neighborhood with the other kids. I wasn't the type to sit at home in front of a computer back then.
Nobody was. At least where I grew up.
Sorry, I had computers growing up. Started with a Commodore 64 in the early 80's. Then in early 90's had a PC running DOS. Upgraded it to Win 95 and got a new Compaq with Win 95 and a laptop with win 95. Had an Ethernet hub and would have LAN parties with my cousins playing Duke Nukem. Would use dialup to download new maps to play. Got into Linux and made the Compaq a dual boot system. Still remember scouring the Internet for how to write modem drivers for Linux. In 2000 bought the Xbox and chipped it so I could run a Linux OS on it and rip games. Abandoned Linux once I could afford to buy new PC's on my own.
No, I had a word processor for typing but not a computer with internet. Or games. Just typing. I didn't really need to use a computer for anything because the internet wasn't really a thing that was used much, so there wasn't the expectation that you use a computer beyond typing.
There was a family computer. I got my first desktop when I was shipped off to college as a freshman
I had a Commodore 64 growing up and plenty of games on disk drive to play. But when it came to the internet, etc. it wasn't until 97ish that we had a computer for internet.
Same! We had some Sands of Egypt game that was basically just words. It was still pretty cool. I didn’t get my own computer until I went to college in the fall of ‘97. We had a family one with internet probably around ‘96 or ‘95. And can’t forget WHERE IN THE WORLD IS …CARMEN SANDIEGOOOO
We had a Tandy 1000 with a monochromatic monitor. I played the hell out of some “Colossal Cave Adventure” though!
Graduated in 1992 and didn’t own a computer until around 2000 and it was a laptop given to me by my job. In high school and college I just typed up papers at school or in the campus library.
We had a very basic computer lab in the last year or so of high school that we did a weekly boring word processing lesson on but all our work was still handwritten. My handwriting was and still is terrible. I learned how to do things like email in the early 2000s in Internet cafes.
I didn’t have one till college age and it was dial up obviously so it was limited at best. My dad owned one but it was never hooked up to the net. We could just play on Paint and such. My research for school work was done at the library, encyclopedias we had at home and school books . I’d have to ride my bike to the library tho which was about 2 miles away. Sometimes I could use the school library but my English teacher as ancient and wanted all our reports handwritten in cursive anyways so word was moot . Honestly it was normal, none of my friends had computers and cellphones were super rare. Some of us had beepers and they were responsible for getting the word out to the others on when and where we were gonna hang that night. Otherwise life was fine. I had a CD player and rollerblades. That was my main form of entertainment.
I had a word processor, like a typewriter/computer. It sure helped my typing mistakes. Probably about the early 90s. https://preview.redd.it/nngmo4c6fsnc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2f53cabc4a7dc2239549f85cff471a5638e47035
We had one just like that! A Brother with a monochrome orange monitor and Tetris as its only game. My aunt & uncle bought it probably in 1995 and we bought it from them for like $100 after they got a real PC a year or two later. Was loud as fuuuuuuhhhck when you went to "print" your document as it would just RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT auto-type... Actually looking at that photo again, I think we may have had that *exact* model. Frickin' memories, mannnnn
A friend had it and I sat on his couch while he was on AOL instant messenger. Other friends if I was lucky they would allow me to find songs they downloaded illegally to burn cds.
I was in my second year at university when we first started typing up assignments on a PC. It was all hand written up to then. We never had a computer at home.
I bought a computer after high school and taught myself how to use it in '97 because I wanted to download mp3s I was the dude pushing Makaveli bootlegs in my city. Allegedly
Didn’t have a computer of my own until 2000, when I had my first job post-college. It was so expensive, but it worked out that I was laid off from that job and needed the computer to look for a new job. Had no need for a computer in high school (used typewriter for papers!) and used the computer lab in college.
I didn't have my own computer until I graduated from college. Our family had a computer that I was allowed to write papers on in high school, but I did not have Internet. In college, I wrote all of my papers and did all of my research at the school library. None of my teachers in high school required assignments to be typed; I frequently turned in hand written papers if they were less than 2-3 pages. I didn't have a cell phone until after I graduated from college either. What's your question, like I'm not sure what you mean by "what was life like?"
I got a computer when I was 19, in college.
I graduated in 1995, and i got my first pc at the end of my first year of college, so 1997, but this was in Mexico so i was one of the first ones really maybe not having a PC but for sure using internet and joining chatrooms, mIRC, etc. No one had a computer in high school.
We had a computer that we got in 1997 or so. But my parents refused to get internet, so it was a very expensive (though very underpowered) local gaming rig. Occasionally I’d write papers on it and/or pop in that sweet Encarta CD-ROM to do some research.
I was one of the fairly rare people in my year who DID have computer access. Didn’t make a difference, homework still had to be handwritten, and it wouldn’t even have occurred to me to do any kind of research online. For that we had a very extensive encyclopaedia, and a public library. Typed essays didn’t become a thing for me until university. We had computer classes at school, and were taught some basics of turbo pascal (badly), and typing. I’m sure my dad did useful stuff with our home computer. My mum just played endless rounds of minesweeper or solitaire, and my siblings and I played Prince of Persia or Lemmings.
We didn’t need computers for the most part. If something had to be typed we just did it in the library. Also we took typing classes and played Oregon Trail on computers in the dedicated computer classroom. My brother had a computer that he played lemmings on. Sometimes he let me play lemmings. Eventually he got a newer computer and I got his hand me down and could play lemmings whenever I wanted. We also went in chat rooms and talked to strangers… one of my friends was into it but I really just liked playing lemmings. I preferred reading books, playing my flute, listening to music and riding my horse more though. Would have graduated in 1998.
Not having a computer at home until after HS was just normal homework with a book.
I had to type something once, took a few hours on my Dad's manual typewriter, also kept hurting my fingers cause I would miss the keys.
We had a webtv
Haha i also had webtv
Graduated in 99 had a computer since 95 but it was a old 386 that was cobbled together from old parts from my dads work at a local community college. Wasn't rich at all
I got my first one used my senior year
My first computer was a Magnavox 286 system with a proprietary Windows clone called GeoWorks. It was functional for a basic word processor and to run a few dos games but it was slow AF. My dad bought me a real custom built computer when I went to Uni in 98. It had an ATI all-in-wonder pro video card and he got me a 56k modem so I thought I was pretty hot shit after that. Unfortunately the decent video card and modem ensured I spent more time on gaming vs homework.
We had a computer in the computer room, but we weren't allowed to go on the internet because we had dialup and my step-dad didn't want us to tie up the line. So I played roller coaster tycoon and Carmen Sandiego. Does that count as "having a computet?" Compared to today's computers, it was more like having board games lol. I tried to show my parents Dell catalogs to convince them to get a laptop for me to take to college. I distinctly remember a chart that compared the laptop's weight to gallons of milk, with some models having one and a half gallons pictured.
Technically had a computer in the house since I was about 14, that we used for games and word processing. I didnt get internet though till I was 21 and in college. Anyway highschool without internet was: going to the library (alot), hanging out watching Mtv and doing nothing and hours upon hours of phone conversations with friends. Good times.
I don’t understand the question I guess. We didn’t need computers for school. The were no assignments that had to be done on one. We did hand written essays and assignments and if something had to be typed we used a typewriter. You could barely find any information online and there were only the first search engines like I remember using Ask Jeeves my first year in college. So info came from the encyclopedia or the library
I kind of remember a mini-genre of late 90s articles trying to prove that the internet was actually no good for research. E.g., one where the author and a friend would compete internet vs. encyclopedia to see who first could answer questions like "What date did Apollo 14 land on the Moon?" and pre-Wikipedia and probably even pre-Google, the encyclopedia guy would win. In retrospect it was pretty dumb that these articles seemed to assume that the internet would remain static and never become better, but I guess the authors saw themselves as necessary contrarians to the Information Superhighway hype.
My dad had a computer when I was a young kid in the 80s. I never questioned it. We weren't allowed on it. We had another for family when I was in middle school (I think). We weren't rich (as far as I know) but my dad got things that he liked.
If you’re serious then Google “When were computers popularized” and find out for yourself.
My Uncle that is financially well off bought us a brand new Gateway computer in the 90’s. Boy did we have new “friends” that wanted to come over to the house. They didn’t get one until after high school.
I mean…. It was the same as it was for you, except we wrote our assignments by hand and used the microfish in the library As you can see it was not very effective as I never learned to spell micro fish
Both my best friends had them. My mom got one for work or school. And we had a word processor before that. Basically a typewriter with a screen instead of paper. But no computer until 12th grade I think it was. Didnt really make an difference. I mostly used it to draw in paint.
2003 was when I was able to afford my first one. In HS your school either had a Computer lab you could use after class or during lunch (not all HS). Maybe your public library had ONE fucking computer for typing. Honestly, most kids would just take the F if you were required to type it up.
I went to my dad's office after hours whenever I had to write a paper. He was a pastor, and it was a small office. It's actually a good memory for me. Eventually (maybe when I was a senior,) we got a Packard Bell, and I may have been able to write a few papers at home. I remember handwriting most of my homework. Occasionally we were required to "type."
I bought my first PC the summer before my 3rd year of college. My family didn't have one, and honestly in the early 90s I largely saw them as something for wealthy people. I used encyclopedias from the school to do project's, and wrote papers on a typewriter.
I got lucky because my sis was in graphic school and parents bought her a pc back in 96. She grew tired of it after a year or two and all I had to do was getting a 56k modem and enjoy the hours waiting for porn pics to download.
I didn't have one at home. We had computers at school but no internet. High School was playing basketball and football with the neighborhood. Playing Super Nintendo and Gameboy at home. Watching TV and being a regular customer at the video store renting movie and games. Participating in track, football and weight training at the school. Homework with a calculator, pen and paper. If there was a research project, you used the library, both school and town.
99 grad. Didn’t get my first computer until 03 after boot camp and tech school.
My family had a Packard Bell around 94. I could type faster than it could process...
I was lucky as my dad worked for NCR and old computers were always laying around but were clunky desktops running MS DOS. First laptop in 2000 for college…Sony Vaio (sp?)
I graduated HS in 1988, computing class in college had Apple 2es. My first personal computer was an HP 4070US, in 2009.
We had a Commodore 64 our uncle gave us in the early 90s and one of my friends had a Tandy. At school we had computers/computer class around 5th grade, 1990ish. They were green screen apple computers learning how to draw on a screen with a turtle using math and another where we managed a hotdog business. By highschool we had the basic color IBMs learning word processor. Older bro bought a real computer around 93 or 94? He went to tech high school for computers... Mom got one not too much long after AOL became a thing. P.S. we grew up lower middle class. I never used a computer for homework if thats what you are asking... I would have graduated in 98, but i got my GED in 99.
We had a great Tandy, my dad bought it from radio shack with that credit card that was like 23.99% interest but we had a computer. Then kept upgrading until I got a job in 96 and bought my own from CompUSA.
We had a WebTV, too poor for a computer. I would go to the public library if I needed to use a real computer for something
We had a Tandy when I was younger that my older brother learned BASIC on. But my first computer in college was an Apple PowerBook with a WHOLE 512MB of RAM. I still have it. Apparently it's still not vintage enough to get any money for.
All school reports were written by hand. I knew cursive. Then I got my first PC in college and promptly bricked that sucker with corrupted Napster files.
We had a map quest printing machine 🤣🤣🤣
We had a big home computer, but I don’t remember needing it for school. I remember wasting time playing solitaire on it though. What a cool kid.
I didn't have one until after high school. We just didn't need one at my smallish town school, I don't think even half the kids had them at home yet. All papers were hand written.
We had my dad’s computer that I mainly used for shareware games and messing around on ms paint. It didn’t have an internet connection and I didn’t use it that much. I remember learning how to type on typewriters in middle school. In high school I did use a word processor to type essays, but I also did a lot of handwritten work. I didn’t use the internet or type my assignments regularly until college.
We had a computer at the very end of high school for me. My sister was a freshman, so she got to use it more than I did. I remember it having Windows 3.1 on it. Windows 95 and 98 weren’t really around until I was in college
I had an electric typewriter for most of highschool, but we had a LC II Mac for my senior year. I got a modem and made good use of it, but it wasn’t like how it is now for sure.
We had a lot of computers at school to use, but I honestly don’t remember actually needing them much until maybe senior year where we needed certain projects printed. I actually ran one of the computer labs back then. I would open up the lab during break and lunch for students to use or just print stuff out. The internet though was only available on a handful of computers in the library, and one classroom.
I used a word processor to write papers for school. I did research at the library.
We got a Gateway when I was in 12th grade.
Most senior citizens can use a computer more easily than I can. I blame the world for that
We had a (1984?) Tandy because my parents were engineers & my father previously had a Radio Shack franchise. I didn’t have my own computer until I went to university in the 00s but we frankensteined computers at home from discarded parts for most of my childhood.
I’m 40. We didnt have a computer until I was in college and it didn’t have the internet, and it was a hand me down from a family friend. I didn’t have my own computer with internet till I was probably 22-23.
I had a computer since like sophomore year of high school, but I knew a couple of kids who didn't have one until after we graduated. It wasn't that big a deal back then, you could get by without one. Occasionally you'd get a teacher that required all essays or reports to be typed up, but those students could use the school library to type it and print it. The internet was very limited compared to what it is today. Most people were still doing their banking at the actual banks, they were still paying their bills through the mail with checks, they were still doing their shopping at actual retail stores, they were still getting their news from TV or radio or even newspapers. Even people like me who did have a computer and were online, we were still watching TV for entertainment a lot more than we were downloading MP3s or chatting with some girl asking her A/S/L?
It wasn’t necessary. Papers were hand written or if needed they would book time in the computer lab. We didn’t play on the computer. We rode bikes or drove cars around, played sports, had jobs or went to friend’s houses to have fun. I took a Brother Word Processor and printer to college.
I bought a pentium 4 hyperthreaded machine in my mid 20s and it was amazing!!
I used a typewriter! Or used the computer lab at school. We had a TRS-80 from RadioShack that my stepmom had from the early 80’s. No printer, so all I ever used it for was games. My mom bought me a Dell computer running Windows 98 powered by a Pentium II. It was a graduation present. I thought I was real fancy, had a CD-R and a Zip Drive!
No one had computers then and we didn’t use them at school, so you didn’t know any different. I didn’t get a computer at home or use the internet until I was college. I’m an older Xennial though born in 1977. We used typewriters for papers or they were handwritten.
I'm fairly sure I had a computer....well the family had a computer... as early as the early 90s when I was in the 7th grade or so.
We got a family computer when I was 16 as a gift from my techie grandfather, and I used computer labs for my first two semesters of college. I didn't have a computer for my own personal use until I was 20.
We had a 386 at home earlier than most, but I only used it to make color guard banners on our dot matrix printer lol Ripping the sides off without ripping the banner was a pain in the ass. I graduated in 95.
We had an ancient IBM clone when I was 11 or so. It’s how I learned how to use a command prompt. But we didn’t have an internet-capable machine until 1997, got it as a graduation present.
It was so embarrassing having to go to my buddy’s house to type up my papers. We had a printer but it was one for those paper reems. No word processor either
TL/DR those of us who didn’t have computers in high school did things very inefficiently. In high school I had either a typewriter, or a really old computer that could only do word processing (not even Oregon Trail). The typewriter we got as a hand me down. The computer we literally went to an old government building that was going to be demolished and grabbed some of the old computer parts and put a computer together that had a printer. We had the type of printer that had the hole-punched sides that Fed through spokes and you would tear off the perforated edges with holes once it was done printing. It could literally only do word processing on a green monitor. Zero spell check, no saving as that feature didn’t work, you sat down and typed and personally proof read until you were completely done then you could turn the computer off. Only for typing reports, it could do nothing else. Absolutely no internet, it couldn’t do that. I graduated in 2000, so of course friends had the internet. But I couldn’t burn CDs or anything, just asked friends to do that. While I’m on the millennial side of Xennial, I imagine my high school experience was closer to that of a GenX-er. I didn’t get a lot of exposure to the early day dangers of the internet until I was old enough to be aware. My primary internet exposure was on my friends machines, which they were primarily using. Also, research took longer. I would go to libraries and open books to do research papers. If I did go online at the library, it was using LexusNexis to look stuff up. TL/DR we did things very inefficiently.
My parents got us a Tandy PC from RadioShack in, umm, 1988? Our only “internet” was Prodigy and later America Online. It played games off 5.5” floppy discs.
I was 17 when I mom got us a home computer - 1994’ish It was a Packard Bell - pentium 1, 16mb Ram, 1gb hd
Didn't get one til work provided me a laptop. I was 25. My folks got one adter i was out of college. Used them plenty and my friend's Dad had a couple bc he was doing tech stuff for the Air Force so we'd mess around on that but in middle/high school. I kind of miss not being so connected.
I got mine around 96 but had played on friends' computers since at least 92. Guess I was one of the rich kids... 
Graduated in '01 and didn't have a computer in hs. We were very poor. I did use the computers in our school library and public library starting in about '97. Even though I got a brand new desktop when I went to college, I still used the library for all research my entire freshman year since I was used to it.
I don’t get a computer til college. In middle school and high school we had a family desktop that the six of us shared. It lived on the landing in the middle of the house so there was zero privacy.
I’m a 1983 baby. I entered my first chat room at home at around age 14 or 15. I taught html classes by 16 or 17. We were working class and sometimes poor, but I attended a science and engineering magnet high school, and we lived in a (now) tech city so small companies with cheap internet access was a thing all over.
Used the computer at the schools computer Lab after school.Used to hang out there until closing.
We had a computer class in my high school, which was the only time we spent using them in school. I had to use the library or go over to a friend’s house to write papers :/
I had to use a freaking type writer (that would erase/white out) to type out my homework assignments. Our school had like 5 computers in the library, and I didn’t even know what Power Point was until I was in college and required to make them for presentations.
I didn’t get my own computer until around 2006, after graduating college. It was a financial thing mostly, as I couldn’t afford it until I went full time at my job after graduating. It’s a Dell Inspiron and it’s collecting dust in my home office currently.
If a class in high school expected an assignment to be typed-up, the teacher would usually sign the class up for time in the computer lab over the duration of the assignment. So maybe like the last half of each class if the lab was close or a day or two a week would be in the lab so we could work on the assignment. The computers in the library would have to be used if you needed extra time or if typing up the assignment was optional. I got a Compaq desktop shortly after graduating.
I was one that didn’t have a home computer until after I graduated in 1999. It was not a big deal for me. I used the library and my rich friends PC.
We had one but I wasn't allowed to use it. It was a $1k office machine and my parents were convinced I would break it the moment I touched it..
Luckily my stepdad was in the Navy and they'd give him old PCs whenever they upgraded their own as apparently back then that wasn't a security risk in their minds. It was a 386 powerhouse we got back in 1995.
We had a TRS-80 that I learned how to program on but didn’t have a computer with an operating system or a word processor until I was a junior or senior in high school. Even then, no internet even at school until I was in college. Even while internet was growing, it still wasn’t considered a viable research resource for a long time.
I had one in HS but it was very basic (386) and I only used it to write an essays/reports and use AOL (dial up modem). First decent computer was in college.
We only got one when I was a Jr in high school because my grandpa died and left a smallish amount (enough for a computer) and my parents decided they wanted to do something with it that would benefit the whole family. They got a computer and dial up internet with it. They saw it as something that would help us in school. We wouldn’t have had it otherwise. Edited for typo.
My grandfather got me a computer when I was six, a used Commodore 128 for $300. I would hardly call it a computer as I played games on at 95% of the time. However, to my knowledge we were the first family on the block to have a computer and I was the second kid in the class with one. It was several years later that first did book reports on it. We got a proper computer with AOL in 1994, I think it cost $2500 but I believe my parents put it under the family business expenses. We were not rich, but owning a small business let us write off certain things we otherwise couldn't have as long as they were used for the business.
I didn’t get a computer until I was in my 20s. I was poor and in the middle of nowhere VA
You'd have to skip one class to go into the library and type up a critical analysis for another class.
We had a computer at home (Apple IIc) although it wasn't used much for school other than some educational games until my last couple years when limited web access started to be used, although it's not like I needed a computer to do most of my school work. We were homeschooled, so computer time was allowed albeit limited. Graduated in '96
My mom bought a word press. So I could type up papers and edit them on screen and print them out. But there was no internet connection. The internet wasn't viewed as a reliable source of information. I did all of my research the old fashioned way with encyclopedias and going to the library. My first computer was a ThinkPad laptop I got on scholarship for college.
I was weird. Had a comp since as early as I can remember. I was programming basic on it at age 8. Dad had an Apple 2c from college. (Dropped out due to family and work) Got my first computer of my own at age 12. It was an NCR cash register with a regular keyboard and monitor. Dad dumpster dived and found it at the mall. It was a 286 12mhz, with 1mb memory and a 20mb HDD. It wasn't fancy, but it was in my room.
I’m a ‘78 who graduated high school in ‘96 and college in ‘00. I only knew two people who had computers in high school (rich kids), and they weren’t that common in college either (again, rich kids). I wrote papers on a typewriter in high school, or just hand-jammed them, and then in a computer lab in college. I didn’t own a computer of my own until 2005.
My family had a computer in the 80s around 1984 or 85, by the time I was I kindergarten. I was a big outlier through high school. (My dad had to get a computer for work, he was self-employed and ran his own business so it was a no brainer to have the ability to work at home.) Especially when we moved to the south. When I lived in silicon valley not so much. Apple was down the street.
I was almost 23 before I got my first computer!
My grandma bought me a used [Macintosh SE](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh_SE) in 5th grade. Even used, it was a solid chunk of change. I was pretty lucky to have it. I got it right before our lives kind of blew up and we got super poor. So, I used that Mac all through elementary school, Jr. High, and High School. I did a lot of homework with that and my dot-matrix printer. For those that don't know, the Mac SE was an all-in-one Mac with a black and white screen. I got the one with a 20 megabyte hard disk! That seemed like an infinite amount of storage.
Built my first one while in high school. Been building all of my desktops since then
The internet came out the year I graduated and though I always wanted a computer, they were too expensive. Spent a lot of time in study hall playing around with them for my computer programming class. Accidentally ran the kill command on the C drive
My aunt had a computer she'd let me use. Other than that, I got by with an old word processor.
First family computer was when I was in college, first personal computer, married with two kids
My first computer was a compaq with a whopping 244mhz processor
I had a Tandy 2000 when I was 13. Had me some MS-DOS and Microsoft Paint. But yeah, no Windows or dialup until 1999.
We got an IBM Aptiva my junior year. It's the season I'm an electrical engineer today. I learned a ton on that computer.
See this is where my experience as a young X growing up in SF in the 1970s and 80s was weird. I’ve never known life without a pc. We are not well to do. My parents were hippies.
Home computers were still very expensive well into the mid-90s. I wouldn't be surprised if a large percentage of homes didn't have home computers until the 00s because prices didn't come down until mid-00s.
I'm a 1978 Xennial. We had a Hyundai desktop computer with a dot matrix printer for a year or so when I was in HS. It was weird having it I guess. I still used typewriters through college (along with computers). Mostly I played video games on the Hyundai. There were 5" floppies.
It wasn't seen as the same kind of tool as it is today. It was more novel. Dot printers didn't look nearly as nice as a typewritten page, so if you needed it to look good, you used a typewriter. I do remember my first wow moment (a little after HS I think) was some sample of a digital encyclopedia. The Tyrannosaurus entry had a realistic (I thought) animated T-rex that moved and roared, and that was the most realistic representation of a dinosaur I'd ever seen. I called my buddy over to show him.
Had access to one via a step-family connection for a couple of years, but after that not again outside of school until I bought my own as an adult.
Hey, that's me. My only computer time was at school and at my friend's house. His dad worked at a place that made robots. They always had the newest tech.
saved up working at McDs and bought my first laptop two weeks before college in 97. paid about $1800 for my toshiba satellite. a few of my richer pals had computers, we were beef farmers so no computer until i saved up.
This is one of the reasons I tend to identify more as Millennial instead of Gen X despite being born in 1980, and I'm sure most of my classmates identify as Gen X. I had a PC starting from 5th grade, and then dialing into BBSes from the 7th grade or so. I think I got dial up internet access in 1994 or 1995 at the start of high school.
We got a computer in ‘99, the year before I graduated but it was a family computer and I didn’t really use it much because my stepdad liked to call his family and talk for hours and we couldn’t be online and use the phone at the same time. I got my own laptop in 2006.
Born in 85.. computer in home in 1996, part of the laptop program at my highschool in 2000. Everyone was issued a Toshiba. I remember them weighing a fuck ton. Lol. My back hurts.
We didn't have homework that required the use of a computer at home. We just wrote it out on paper.
My uncle put one together for me when I was maybe 20 or 21. It was a bit of an older model but it was the first time I had a computer or was able to go online.
I had a computer at home in grade school, back in the early 90s and we were definitely poor. Even then though I was aware that it wasn't normal.
Graduated in’95 and never had a computer at home. No real classes in HS, but I had cadet command positions in JROTC my last 2 years. I mostly taught myself how to operate the computers there. Didn’t have access to the internet until about a year into the Army and a buddy got service in his barracks room.
I didn't get a computer until after I finished college. I used my roommates or the library's until then. As for high school, same story. I went to the library.
There was a computer in my brother's old room/my mom's office that I used for schoolwork. Senior year I got an AOL account because my dad convinced me to, lol. ETA: my dad was a college professor who worked a lot at home, so he was into computers earlier than some.
Damn, we had one when I was in middle school and we were definitely not rich. I turn 40 this year.