1994 Katie Couric And Bryant Gumbel Try To Figure Out What This ‘Internet’ Thing Is

video

by Frances Martel | 7:57 pm, January 29th, 2011

» 29 comments

It’s 2011: A country of 80 million is in violent revolt because of cyber-censorship, the world’s most wanted criminal is a hacker whose life’s work is to disseminate government secrets, most of us use our telephones as maps, music players, and news feeds… and yet 17 years ago, no one knew what the internet even was. Back in 1994, getting the Today Show crew to properly read an email address– much less understand what it meant– was a feat for the ages.

Just ask Bryant Gumbel, who in the segment below attempts to invite readers to email the show at the address violence@nbc.ge.com. Except he wasn’t prepared to “translate” the email address because he didn’t know what “the little mark with the ‘a’ and then the ring around it” is (he correctly guessed “at;” Katie Couric guessed “about”) and reads it “Violence at GE com,” which an emphasis on the invisible question mark at the end. Then he wonders aloud what the internet is, to which Couric tries to respond, “the one that’s becoming big now” and finally, exasperatedly, asks someone off-set what the Internet is. She then appears skeptical of the idea that this communication doesn’t require phone lines.

Watch the anthropologically fascinating (and, in retrospect, hilarious) confusion from the Today Show below:

[h/t Buzzfeed]

Bryant Gumbel, Internet, Katie Couric, NBC, Today Show

Gasket

Insane how far we have come. That’s also the same woman who cleaned Sarah Palin’s clock 14 years later..hehe. :)
lazzzlo

Memories, memories, memories. I remember firing up Spry Mosaic and trying to e-mail someone from my @compuserve addy…except hardly anyone I knew had e-mail at that time!
Arkansas Steve

Really great story Frances. Our world is changing faster every day.
axel360

Wow Gumbel was as obnoxious back then as he is now
http://gordonbloyershow.com gordonbloyershow

Couric was as dumb then as Gasket is now.
The_Reasonable_Lib

gordonbloyershow said:
Couric was as dumb then as Gasket is now.

Rush was as fat then as you are now.
Nacho

Around ’94 I was giving up Prodigy and moving on to AOL.
Powerslave

Let us now all bow our heads in silence to give thanks to Al Gore for “inventing” this wonderful thing called the internet.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Mike-DePouw/1257430876 Mike DePouw

awesome vid!! thanks!
Harry Merkin

The Google Machine is a series of tubes.
Just_MC

Katie Couric is as imbecilic now and then as Bryand Gumbel and John Boehner were orange now and then.
Gasket

gordonbloyershow said:
Couric was as dumb then as Gasket is now.

Hello Gordo. I’m sorry for insulting your favorite “masturbation material” floozie. Where’s that Dick Morris video? You forgot to spam it in this thread as well! Just looking out for you Blower. ;)
Dem4Ever

Hey Frances deary, your ability to jump on the hot stories is mind eFing blowing. Tell everybody more about this Internet thing! I hope your sweet cheeks are slappable because you suck at your job.
ChrisNH

Go Katie Couric! You little Leftist communist media bitch, you! She would be the bitch who makes $15m a year while toeing the line against ‘rich millionaires’ like her Obama superiors told her to.
http://libertyinprogressnow.wordpress.com/ ProgLib

ChrisNH said:
Go Katie Couric! You little Leftist communist media bitch, you! She would be the bitch who makes $15m a year while toeing the line against ‘rich millionaires’ like her Obama superiors told her to.

Good to see the people commenting on Mediaite are keeping it classy these days. Very mature.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Kim-Barker/693546751 A Kim Bo

ChrisNH said:
Go Katie Couric! You little Leftist communist media bitch, you! She would be the bitch who makes $15m a year while toeing the line against ‘rich millionaires’ like her Obama superiors told her to.

How can you be a COMMUNIST who makes MILLIONS by supporting CORPORATIONS? You tools really need to read your own logic before you spew.
BatBoy

Francis…thanks for bringing us this story.

I was around during that time working is the systems world. E-mail in the early 90’s was on mainframes only with no access to the outside world.

In 1995 we began rolling our applications that were housed on servers and the internet was just an extra.
Needless to say, it exploded after that.

Technology was moving so fast then, that there were predictions that the internet would be doing in 2000/01 what it is capable of doing today. Hence the Dot.Com bubble burst in March 2000. Looking back, I believe the internet was probably capable of more however it was the people that slowed it down. (That was probably a good thing)

We are talking about the last 15 – 16 years. My new granddaughter was born in Sept last year. I cannot imagine what she will be seeing on her 16th birthday.

Again Francis…thanks for the story.
Thelonious Funk

So the internet is on computers now?
Pablo

It would be great fun to travel back in time and show them a smartphone. Except that it wouldn’t work back there.
writer

Things took a wrong turn when Katie asked “What’s this thing?” and Bryant said “Let me show you.”
stoogedudes

BatBoy said:
Francis…thanks for bringing us this story. I was around during that time working is the systems world. E-mail in the early 90’s was on mainframes only with no access to the outside world. In 1995 we began rolling our applications that were housed on servers and the internet was just an extra.Needless to say, it exploded after that. Technology was moving so fast then, that there were predictions that the internet would be doing in 2000/01 what it is capable of doing today. Hence the Dot.Com bubble burst in March 2000. Looking back, I believe the internet was probably capable of more however it was the people that slowed it down. (That was probably a good thing) We are talking about the last 15 – 16 years. My new granddaughter was born in Sept last year. I cannot imagine what she will be seeing on her 16th birthday. Again Francis…thanks for the story.

I can still remember sending my first email. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I remember wanting to send an email to my brother and thought his email address was a web address. I was frustrated to find that I couldn’t send him an email from this non-existant address. Now, emailing seems to be a dying trend, except for at work, where I send so many emails per day, its a wonder I don’t have carpal tunnel syndrome. These days, Facebook seems to have taken the place of personal emails.

By the way, I know it’s a bit late, but congratulations on your new granddaughter. I’ve got a little nephew who brightens my day I’m sure every bit as much as your new granddaughter does yours.
stoogedudes

Pablo said:
It would be great fun to travel back in time and show them a smartphone. Except that it wouldn’t work back there.

Hell, they sometimes don’t even work in 2011! LOL!
beavoux

gordonbloyershow said:
Couric was as dumb then as Gasket is now.

You didn’t know what the Internet was till 2000!
tatboy

ProgLib said:
Good to see the people commenting on Mediaite are keeping it classy these days. Very mature.

Ummm… have you read some of the comments left by your liberal counterparts??? They’re just as douchy as anybody… Hello Gasket ;).
jrd

Great story. It is amazing how quickly something that we may have difficulty understanding at first becomes both routine and indispensable in our everyday life. My son was born in 1994. I am envious of what technological advances he will experience long after I am gone.
Gasket

ChrisNH said:
Go Katie Couric! You little Leftist communist media bitch, you! She would be the bitch who makes $15m a year while toeing the line against ‘rich millionaires’ like her Obama superiors told her to.

tatboy said:
Ummm… have you read some of the comments left by your liberal counterparts??? They’re just as douchy as anybody… Hello Gasket ;).

I fight fire with fire. I insult when insulted. I am not Jesus or MLK Jr. I don’t turn the other cheek, so in other words — f@ck off titboy! ;)
tatboy

Gasket said:
I fight fire with fire. I insult when insulted. I am not Jesus or MLK Jr. I don’t turn the other cheek, so in other words — f@ck off titboy! ;)

Sorry to bust your bubble buddy but you’re usually the first person to start flinging poo. You don’t FIGHT fire with fire. You’re an arsonist. Thank for playing. ;)
J Baustian

Gasket said:
I fight fire with fire. I insult when insulted. I am not Jesus or MLK Jr. I don’t turn the other cheek, so in other words — f@ck off titboy! ;)

Wait a minute… when someone calls Katie Couric a commie bitch, you take that as a personal insult?

Who are you? Katie Couric?
TCinAZ

It’s simple, Perky. This ‘internet’ thing is a high-falootin’ computer system that’s been dumbed down for us unwashed masses so it can communicate with other folks all over our country (WOW!) who ain’t as smart as You are, and who don’t read many $1.00 dead news magazines as you do anymore Neither.