Seventeen years ago I was 11, Ace of Base was the biggest band, Mrs. Doubtfire was the box office hit, and The Today Show’s Katie Couric and Bryant Gumbel we trying to familiarize themselves with the internet. In the following video segment from January 1994, the news anchors and their staff talk briefly about what the internet is. Gumbel isn’t sure how to pronounce “@”, and no one says “dot” when they read “.com”. They have to ask a crew member to clarify how the internet works. Do you write to it like mail? Is it just in Universities? Does it require a phone line?

This video is a reminder of how unprepared the mainstream media was for the internet.