Intermission: MTV Explains the Internet in 1995

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmboEjwJwFU&feature=player_embedded

Nineties nostalgia is in full force this summer. GOOD ran a Now and Then series, Nickelodeon brought back our childhood shows with The 90s Are All That, and, as of yesterday, an early news report about the Internet has gone viral. This video features Kurt Loder interviewing people like Sandra Bullock, Coolio and "cyberjournalists," all explaining how this "big deal technological fad" is infiltrating our culture. The report even plays a clip of The Net: "We're sitting on the most perfect beach in the world, and all we can think about is 'Where can I hook up my modem?'" (Little did they know that this sentence would later sum up about 90 percent of our summer beach experiences.)

To me, the takeaway from this video is a line that could have been uttered yesterday: "Some people would be strongly advised to avoid the Internet: the hyper-sensitive, the humor-impaired, and puritans of every stripe." Amen.