Taro's Blog

I was watching the interview with 堀江 貴文 (Takamumi Horie) on YouTube. Mr Horie, also known as ホリエモン (Horiemon), and たかぽん (Takapon), is a smart individual and a successful entrepreneur. He started On the Edge (later, Livedoor) and has been my hero.
【前編】堀江貴文/福岡の田舎町に誕生した神童/超短期間での東大逆転合格/プロ野球参戦潰してきた巨人ナベツネ/楽天・三木谷と直接対決で敗北の理由は老害の機嫌

1995 was remembered as the year the Internet was born for us. (ARPANET was already conceived in the 1960s in the United States, but access had been strictly limited to the US armed forces.) In November 1995, Microsoft released Windows 95 with the Internet Explorer (IE) browser. In 1996, the IE popularized Internet access. The pre-Internet era ended in 1995. The Post-Internet era began in 1996. Thus, I consider that the Year 1996 was the Internet Year 0001. That makes 2025 the Internet Year 0030.

In the pre-Internet era, we had to connect to the computer network proactively. We had to subscribe to a service provider, prepare a modem, connect the modem to the landline phone line, and then had to pay per usage. As I look back, the beauty of the era was that we were NOT connected to the Internet all the time.

Today, we are continuously connected to the Internet24/7/365. That’s overwhelming sometimes. I insist that the disconnection from the Internet is a necessity; perhaps, 2 weeks per year without an internet connection is a must. I remember the 2-week cruise vacation in December 2022 with my son was so memorable because we chose not to connect to the Internet.