The 90s

In 1998, the year the first 56K modem was available for purchase, I was in the 8th grade.

At that age anything that was not a video game was useless to me. Most of my reading material was still on paper. Porn was still the occasional nipple floating beneath a scrambled TV miasma. It was a simpler time.

My father had a nerdy obsession with gadgets and was always getting the next new thing. CD-ROMS were such a big deal to me in 1995 that I nearly choked to death on a wayward pearl in some oyster gumbo because the graphics on Sims were so fresh. Throughout my high school years my father insisted upon handing me down his old Palm Pilots and then asked why I never took them to school with me. The 56K modem just kind of appeared beside the family computer one day and poof the internet was "super fast."

The Challenge

When Hopes&Fears approached me about using a 56K modem for a period of time, I got all cyber-machismo and upped the ante from their suggested three days to a whole week. I felt like seven days would make me really feel the burn; would make me check my privilege. In actuality, this was possibly the most panic-attack inducing bullshit decision I’ve ever made.