Vintage Video: Katie Couric and Bryant Gumbel Ask “What is the Internet?”

Katie Couric, Bryant Gumbel 1994 Considering how many of us rely on the internet every single day, for work, for communication with friends, families, acquaintances and co-workers, and even for the occasional recreational video game or funny video, it can be a little difficult to think back to a time when we didn’t have immediate access to the vast and endless world of the internet. In 1994, however, while the internet did exist and people were utilizing it, many were still very unclear as to what the internet was, and what, exactly, people were using it for.

Take a look at this video I came across this morning of Katie Couric and Bryant Gumbel on the Today Show in 1994 discussing what the “@” symbol means (Bryant Gumbel said “at” but it “sounded stupid” when he said it and Katie Couric thought it meant “about”.)

What is really odd to me is that 1994 doesn’t feel like it was that long ago, but when I put into perspective, I was all of eight years old. Yeah. Perspective! Can you imagine what we’ll think about the year 2011 two decades from now?

4 thoughts on “Vintage Video: Katie Couric and Bryant Gumbel Ask “What is the Internet?””

  1. Wow! It’s interesting how we now take all of it for granted and go crazy when we can’t connect!
    Thank God the days of dial-up are over!

  2. AAaaack! EIGHT?!! I was thirty-three. THIRTY-THREE. Now I do feel old. I have been using the internet for some time though, now Katy and Bryant cant do a news clip without internet. They use computers for almost everything on the news now…

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