Are you asking me out on a date?

June 22, 2009 at 12:53 pm · Filed under Geek Culture & Tech, Roba


Communication Evolution @ Yahoo! Video

I’ve been wanting to share this video for quite some time now, and I kept forgetting to do it.

I’m sure many of you have already seen it, but I can’t help but share it anyway. Watching it gives me goosebumps and sends a quick stream of visual memories dealing with email, love at first ‘site’, and countless hours spent “living” inside my inbox (literally, sometimes).

I got my first email when I had just turned 12, in 1997. It was a Hotmail account, before Microsoft bought it: roba_assi_ @hotmail.com (yes, with the double underscores, when you’re 12, that’s like the coolest thing ever). It’s been 12 years now since that day, which means I spent 12 years online, and 12 years offline, although of course only 5 of the first 12 years count because even today kids probably don’t get email accounts until they’re like 7 or something :) I think.

I don’t know if I’m the only one in the world who finds this video really touching, watching it over and over again like some people would watch their wedding videos.

What do you think? When did you get your first email account? Does email mean more to you than simply a way of quick functional communication?






  • http://www.myspace.com/mcmicromusic Mike “MC Micro”

    The internet is great! I mean lets see i got my first acound back in 2000 and ive always been online since then, its alot eaiser to to communicate and faster!

    Deff like the video nice one roba!

  • http://allouh.wordpress.com mohammad

    believe it or not, i got my first email when i got into the university at 2002!, although i have a PC since 97, guess i created it when i needed it only!

  • http://www.yameen-shmal.com Shmal

    I’ve had my email since I was 11, it was also a Hotmail and I still use it till today!
    Love the video :D

  • Sarah Mourad

    I also made a hotmail account when I was 15, the first one to do so from all my friends, I was so excited! and one of my first emails was from you acting as some kind of stalker :P back in 9th grade, figured it was you cuz I had just given you my email the day before. :D

  • Jeff

    Roba thanks for posting this video. I got a stupid smile on my face when they showed the first web browsers (Circa 1995) in the vid.

    I remember going on the web for the first time in 1994 in a computer lab at our university, and then, how it quickly it became a habit to drive to campus just to check my email – I actually still have (and sometimes use) that first email address from 1995. The hotmail address I signed up for in 1997 has long since been abandoned.

    It’s amazing how completely immersed we have all become in what was once a novelty, or something you had to go do “I’m going ON THE INTERNET now” DIAL Click, boing Click boing whirrrrr! CONNECTED! Now, sitting in a meeting, iphone gives a quiet buzz, and I know I have email. I keep expecting progress to plateau, but so far it hasn’t.

  • Stephen

    I created my first email account in computer class in school which I still use occasionally also with two underscores but back to back wohooo :)

  • http://andfaraway.net Roba

    Mike “MC Micro”, yeah, it is amazing!

    Mohammad, wow, that is pretty late in internet standards :) But I guess need is the best time to do things…

    Shmal, I can’t get myself to use Hotmail anymore. It’s so… 3ajga! And so un-user friendly. God bless Gmail!

    Sarah, hahahahaha, I just remembered! You left the school a few days later and I never go to know what happened :D Haha, glad to hear you figured it out :P So funny.

    Jeff, yeah, we take email and connectedness for granted, but you’re right, I remember when checking my email entailed 30 minutes worth of attempts to get the dial up working! Now its just touching an icon on my phone. I don’t imagine the progress to slow down any time soon though… holographs, anyone? :)

    Stephen, so I meet another 2 underscorer!! Did you create it cause you thought it was cool too?

  • http://ephemeralpassion.blogspot.com Ruby

    Loved the video–thank you for sharing :) It’s amazing how something like the web has made other modes of communication like letter-writing, phone, etc., feel so outdated! I prefer IM/email/FB/Twitter for communication over phone. I guess that’s the beauty of technology :)

  • khalid jarrar

    hmm!

    1997 or 1998 started my first email accout, i am not quite sure if it was a yahoo or a hotmail, i do remember i had several accounts that have been terminated because i havent used for 3 months (or six months?!) since i wasnt always in jordan and internet wasnt in neihgboring countries yet.

    the earliest email account i remember is keenONpepsi@yahoo.com or something. i had a speial relation with pepsi for years ;)

    indeed God bless Gmail, it does to other email providers what laptops did to typewriters.

    its been years until it has all been fixed:

    khalidjarrar@yahoo.com
    khalidjarrar@hotmail.com
    khalidjarrar@gmail.com
    khalidjarrar@islamway.com
    khalidjarrar@ just whatever domain there is :P

    Remember the excitment of going to the internet cafe? i dont think internet was avaialble for home users yet even.

    MIRC2 and such? :D Ayyam!

  • Asmaa E

    Roba! I remember you giving me your email adress and and i was like ‘whats after the second underscore???’ I thought it was weird but i had you down as a weirdo even back then haha

  • hbt66

    Aaaah .. i got my first email back when i was 14 and i remember being all excited and spreading it around in class, i got a hotmail whereas others were on dinomail, lovemail, alienmail, etc lol and I got my gmail back when it was only by invitation which made it even cooler hahaha

    i remember the first time i saw people writting arabic with english letters and numbers it confused the hell out of me :D

  • http://hareega.blogspot.com Hareega

    I’m still using my first hotmail account, the first email I got was a random one from Singapore in 1996, it was the most awesome thing in the world

  • Pingback: Historian: 10 Years anniversary of being online! :)

  • http://qassami.blogspot.com mo

    i got my first email in 8th grade .. i remember i had a friend who had internet and we made it at his house .. having internet was like having nintendo or something back then .. so that was around 97 i guess
    im still using the same email .. it was a hotmail account .. i have a yahoo account which i never used i only made it to use yahoo messenger and even that nobody uses anymore

  • http://andfaraway.net Roba

    Ruby, yeah I know. I actually get really bothered when people are talking on the phone around me. It’s like… dude, if you have that much stuff to say, EMAIL THEM.

    Khalid, loool@”keenonpepsi”. Tha’ts really funny. Plus the word “keen”, mish eno “I love pepsi” or “pepsi rocks” or anything like that. Keen! Haha. Btw, I used to be the ultimate mIRC user :)

    Asmaa, hehe, I still remember your email, with the 143 for I love you at the end! So ya3ni, you’re an even bigger weirdo :P

    hbt66, the beginning of transliteration with the numbers was really confusing at the beginning for me too. For example, I still get confused at how different arab countries have different numbers for different letters. A “Kha” for me is ’7, for others its a 4 or a 5 or something like that.

    Hareega, haha, yeah, spam as AWESOME then. But there wasn’t much spam yet. You should ditch Hotmail though, GMail rocks!

    Mo, you’re also still using Hotmail! 7aram, Gmail rocks. We were the fisrt family from my friends to also have internet, and our idea of entertainment was going into Yahoo! chat and chatting with random strangers. Shu zamaaaaaaaaaaaan!

  • khalid jarrar

    Roba, honest to God, i remember i tried both “ilovepepsi” and “pepsirocks” and they were both taken so i went for keenonpepsi!!!!!!!!! tsad2i willa ma tsad2i?!!

    3anjad mish ma32oolih inti!