Internet Birthdays We Will Not Be Celebrating

The Internet is an amazing phenomenon but its invention also brought with it a dark side, therefore there are now Internet birthdays we will not be celebrating.

1. The PSN Network goes down

Wednesday April 20th 2011 will be a day remembered around the world. It’s not because someone famous died or a war started. It will forever be remembered as the day the Playstation Network went down. Someone hacked into the PSN network, and sent gamers worldwide into a frenzy when they couldn’t get online to play their favorite games. It wasn’t a short outage either; gamers were irate for over a month while Sony had to implement new security measures before bringing it back online.

2. The Birth of Spam Mail

On May 3, 1978, the world got its first dose of a little something called Spam email. Yes, those evil little messages that fill up your inbox have been around that long. Gary Thuerk was a marketer for the Digital Equipment Corporation when he sent out a message to 400 people on “ARPAnet” which was technically the first “Internet” founded by DARPA. Thanks to Gary, we’ve been enjoying SPAM mail ever since and this is now one Internet birthday that we will not be celebrating.

3. World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft’s can be seen as a gift, or a curse by its millions of fans around the world. The popular MMORPG was launched on November 23, 2004 and is by far the most popular (and geeky) online game to date. You may be asking why is WOW on the most terrible list, well just ask the countless girlfriends who’ve gotten more than a bit irritable at WOW. People who play the game may form new friends online, but in a lot of “extreme” cases they’ve alienated themselves from the “real” world away from their CPU. World of Warcraft is by far the most hated game by parents as well, just ask anyone who has a teenager that plays the game.

4. Internet Trolls

Have you ever wanted to get online and post a quick comment about something you’ve read, but have to register first? Well, most of that is due to a group of people known as Trolls, and they’ve been around for a long time. In a nutshell, Trolls are the people that pop up in forums (and everywhere else) who condemn the thoughts of others. If you think The Foo Fighters rule, and want to post your love for them online, chances are someone is “trolling” around and will pop up just to tell you how much they think the Foo Fighters suck. Thanks, Trolls… don’t you have anything better to do? I know the “trolls” will be celbrating this internet birthday!

5. Pop Up ads

Now we’re not sure exactly when these started up, as there was no definitive answer out there, but we do know it was before the year 2000. The annoyances known as “Pop Ups” have been around well over 10 years now, and don’t look to be going away anytime soon. Whether you’re browsing online for shoes or looking up a local movie time; there is no doubt that anyone who’s ever used a computer has seen a “Pop Up”.

6. Internet Spread Computer Viruses

Computer viruses with have been around almost as long as the Internet, but only one virus could be deemed as the worst ever. That virus was dubbed the “Storm Worm” and was first identified in 2006. It was dubbed the Storm Worm due to the fact that every email that contained the worm had “230 dead as storm batters Europe” in its title. This bad little Trojan horse was detected in more than 200 million emails in 2007 alone, and hopefully taught people to not open everything that is sent to you via email.

7. Porn

Porn. Yup, if there’s a bad Internet list you’ve got to have Porn in it. Whether you watch it yourself, or find it tasteless, you’re not going to be able to get away from it on the web. Porn has been on the net since the early 80’s an adult themed ASCII text images. Usenet & BBS systems took it through the 90s, until the World Wide Web got ahold of it, and spread it across the far corners of the net. One thing is for sure, Facebook may be gone in 20 years, but porn will still be around.

8. Chat Rooms

Online Chat Rooms have been around for ages, and the first was actually the CompuServe CB simulator in 1980. They’ve come a long way since then, much to the dismay of parents worldwide. Chat Rooms were actually pretty innocent at first, and used as a way to chat with people you’d normally never get to meet. You could talk to Bob in Zambia, or Chad in Tennessee; it was actually pretty cool at first. As they grew in popularity that all changed, and it became more about “show me yours and I’ll show you mine.” Thanks, webcams…

9. Emoticons

Emoticons are the oldest thing on our list (next to porn), and will continue to be around for a long, long time. It started with the number 73 being used in Morse Code to express “love & kisses” and continues to this day. There is even a debate on whether Abraham Lincoln used one in a speech written in 1862 where a “ ; ) “ was noticed. Nobody knows for sure, but honest Abe could’ve been one of the first to use the smiley face winking. Everyone who’s ever sent an email has seen one and whether you want to admit it or not, you’ve used one as well. Love em’ or hate them, Emoticons are definitely here to stay.

10. Facebook

The social media giant known as Facebook first came into existence on October 28, 2003 as Facemash and nothings been the same since. Whether you love it or hate it, you just can’t get away from it. Facebook is everywhere these days as evident by the countless “like” buttons you see gracing practically every website on the Internet. Some people live for Facebook and socializing with their friends, while other people truly rue the day it was conceived.

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Have you got any Internet birthdays that you will not be celebrating ?