Hey, I'm Kate Lindsay, and you're listening to I-C-Y-M-I, or in case you missed it,

Slate's podcast about internet culture.

And today on the show, I am joined by writer Sonia Weiser. Hello, Sonia. Hey, thanks for having me. Sonia hates hearing her own voice through these headphones, but I'm happy you're here in person, and you'll get used to it, and it's kind of like a ego boost after a while. You're like, I sound great. No, no.

I've heard enough of my own voice to know that that's never going to happen.

Well, we had to ask you the question that we ask all first time guests and maybe answering this.

It'll help you get used to how it's all set up, which is, what is your earliest internet memory?

Okay, so I've been thinking about this a lot and trying to remember, because I want to be

prepared.

Yeah, no.

Like straight-A student vibes.

Yeah, thank you.

So this isn't my earliest, but it is one of my most vivid. And it's watching interviews and movie trailers on AOL's movie phone.

Yeah. And because I had a PC, the virus protection wasn't good. So as I was watching, the quality would just get lower and lower and lower. And it would be pausing. And like like the trailer for rent would just keep stopping.

And I also like, those were my first introductions to like interviews, I think.

Yeah. Uh-huh. I remember my, I loved watching like interview clips and trailers.

Obviously, mine were all Harry Potter centered. But I would like download the interviews because at that time it was like, I don't know, the sites that they were hosted on made it very easy to be like, wow, Daniel Radcliffe talking to David Letterman, download, and I would keep it all in a folder. But yeah, the buffering is so, I think, fundamental to growing up online. And I don't think anyone, like my sort of kids these days is like they've barely had to wait for a buffer.

They've never had to like figure out how to kill time or watch a movie in basically 15 minute increments.

So you let it buffer in between and you go like do something else.

Okay, so that's true. But also when you watch anything on YouTube, if you have the ads, oh, that's their version of buffer. Like, I was watching, yeah, like, I was watching the Super Bowl halftime show, and they just, like, milked the opportunity to have ads on YouTube. So every two minutes, they would just stop that bunny randomly. Oh, my God. And people like, Uber! And then... And then... Ring, we're going to track your face. Yeah, exactly. And then I'll go back to it.

So I think... it's, they would just stop that bunny randomly. Oh, my God. And be like, Uber! And Uber, ring, we're going to track your face.

Yeah, exactly.

And then I'd go back to it. So I think that's where they learn. Yeah, like life isn't perfect. Life, life isn't perfect. Yeah. And instead of, I don't know, it does feel quaint, though, that we got to go, like, make a sandwich and they have to like watch like Coinbase.

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