The internet felt decidedly different in the late ’90s and early ’00s.

The internet feels depressingly bleak these days: AI slop and bots are all over social media. We all exist in our own little online echo chambers. And as I type this, bad-faith actors are probably tricking your grandma into thinking Tom Cruise is messaging her and needs money for food right away. (Poor Tom!)

Given the dismal state of things, a lot of millennials have been realising just how good they had it growing up. The web seemed simpler in the late ’90s and early ’00s ― cosier and more close-knit, even, with people using it mainly to email friends and family or to find people with similar interests on message boards and chat rooms.

Of course, dark corners on the internet have always existed, and in chat rooms, most of us probably encountered a creeper asking for our “ASL” in the hopes of finding a kid to groom. (The TV show “To Catch a Predator,” in which NBC host Chris Hansen would ambush adult men who attempted to hook up with strangers they believed to be young children, started in what many millennials think of as the glory days of the internet, in 2004.)

So maybe it wasn’t so cosy after all. But something was definitely different about it, too. In the spirit of nostalgia, we decided to ask millennials (and cusp Gen X-ers) to share what they remember most from those days. Here’s what they said. (As a nostalgic millennial, I added a few myself, too.)

Responses have been lightly edited for clarity.

Using your burgeoning HTML skills to make fan sites on Geocities or Angelfire

“If you were a fan of something — a movie, a video game, a celebrity, whatever — you didn’t talk about it on social media, you made a website about it. People made fan websites for anything you can imagine. I had one about a Star Wars video game that got cancelled and another one for bucket hats. They always had a guestbook where someone could say something like, ‘You made a website about bucket hats?’” ― Jesse J. Anderson, author of the Extra Focus ADHD Newsletter

Being petty with your MySpace Top 8

“What was the point of having a Top 8 friend category? Teens these days would probably call it cringe, but there was nothing better than removing someone who pissed you off from your MySpace Top 8. We didn’t have to deal with influencers shoving products down our throats on MySpace, it was just pure innocent interactions with your friends. Also, MySpace was unknowingly teaching us coding when all we were trying to do was get a fire background ” ―Ayanna Sanaa Davis, an artist and autism advocate

"MySpace was unknowingly teaching us coding when all we were trying to do get a fire background," said Ayanna Sanaa Davis, an artist and autism advocate.

Waiting for images to load, slowly, line-by-line

“Back in the early internet days, seeing a photo wasn’t instant gratification — it was a patience test. You’d click on an image, and then... wait. And wait. Watching as each line of pixels slowly loaded, revealing your favorite celebrity or that one grainy meme your friend emailed you. Sometimes you’d just give up halfway through because it wasn’t worth the 10-minute investment. Teens today live in the world of instant everything, so explaining how we had to work for our content would blow their minds.” ―Marni Battista, an author

Designing your own website and measuring how popular you were with hit counters and guestbooks

“Before follower counts and likes measured digital clout, we made websites with publicly visible ‘hit counters’ displaying our web traffic. And instead of comment sections, we had online ‘guestbooks’ where visitors could sign their names and leave a message to show their support. Seeing your hit counter tick up or having someone write ‘Cool site!’ in your guestbook was the ultimate badge of honor.” ― Brianne Fleming, the author of “By Popular Demand,” a newsletter about marketing and pop culture

Illegally burning copies of entire albums off of LimeWire and Napster

“Getting a computer virus? Who cares, as long as you’ve got all........

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