# Welcome Home Internet

By [Jonathan Glancy](https://paragraph.com/@jmglancy) · 2022-06-09

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Client: Coinbase

_We used to call it the information superhighway._ 

_It was easier than calling it the IN-TER-NET._

_Life was simpler back then…_

_The World Wide Web was the final frontier and we were explorers on a mission to boldly go where no one had gone before._

_There were no borders, no rulers, and no censorship._ 

_Just people surfing, building homepages, and meeting fellow nerds online._

_Going online meant choosing between that important phone call and this_ [_(Click)_](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tDugiy8xerrv4tSePq_vvYe3dpZvN2kWPQjOgcfczFs/edit#)_._

_Email addresses were hella cool like_ [_Teenstud2000@hotmail.com_](mailto:Teenstud2000@hotmail.com)_._

_A simple chat could turn into a lifelong friendship from across the world._

_And people joined newsgroups around topics they actually cared about, like dairy farming and Sailor Moon fandom._

_To outsiders, we were nerds, but online, we were rebels, inhabitants of a new civilization: Cyberspace._

_The best part was no one could tell you what to do or how to think._ 

_Then, everything changed._ 

_Companies came in for profits and sold our attention._

_And by giving away our data, we gave away our freedoms._

_But that’s not how the story ends._

_We can rebuild the web the right way._

_And put an end to spam bots once and for all!_

_Never forget, before_ [_this guy_](http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2036683_2037183_2037185,00.html) _won Time Magazine’s Person of the Year,_ [_YOU_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_%28Time_Person_of_the_Year%29) _did._

_The future is yours._

_Welcome home._ 

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*Originally published on [Jonathan Glancy](https://paragraph.com/@jmglancy/welcome-home-internet)*