1. The anticipation

EVERYONE seemed to have access to the internet before you.

Day in, day out you longed for your parents to give the nod that they were going to take the plunge and allow the online world to flood through their precious phone line.

No longer would your computer activities be limited to the Encarta CD-ROM and MS Paint.

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2. The noise

When you were finally granted access to the world wide web, this noise stood between you and all that precious knowledge:

3. The phoneline

You could be on the internet, or you could be on the phone. You couldn’t do both.

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4. The speed

Remember when photos used to inch their way agonisingly down the screen? When it used to take forever just to see the new poster for The Matrix?

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This dilemma was frequent:

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5. So many wires

Sure, everything is wireless now, but there was a time when you were tied to the desk and this was your lifeline:

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6. The bills

Your parents thought you were upstairs reading your Point Horror books and counting down the minutes to the next episode of Home Improvement.

In reality you were becoming slowly addicted to obscure chat forums and sending MSNs to your mates about the fine things in your class.

It was all fun and games… until the bill came.

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7. The early websites

You probably had your own rubbish Geocities page, didn’t you. With sparkly GIFs and a link to a family photo album?

That’s OK, we did too. Maybe we could exchange links!

Source: CloudnineinteractiveEven Gay Byrne had one, or as good as:

8. The crazes

These days there are about 7 internet crazes a day, from dog shaming to owling, but it the good old days one terrible internet phenomenon could last for months and months.

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The Dancing Baby was the first meme that was so widespread, even your mam probably knew about it. "Have ye seen that dancing baby! Hilarious!"

9. Early social networking

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Remember when Tom was your only friend on Myspace, and you spent hours customising your page with sparkly HTML skins?

No? Well, that's it. You're out of our Top Friends list.

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Those days are long gone though, and now the internet is integral to everything we do. TV, messaging, music, film, EVERYTHING IS THERE!

And you probably spend your whole life like this:

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And with UPC's revolutionary Horizon service, you can watch TV, surf the web and call family and friends - all thanks to one device.

With Horizon, you can also record four programmes at the same time - while watching a fifth. Meanwhile, the Horizon TV Remote App and Horizon TV Online transform your iPad, iPhone and laptop into TVs to take anywhere in your home.

And there's 120Mb totally unlimited broadband - so no more worrying about download limits. For more information, check out UPC.ie.