Man claims there is 'one sound' that will 'forever separate' people born before and after 1998… can you guess?
- People born before 1998 heard a long series of beeps to go online
- A TikTokker said that only older generations will remember this sound
- READ MORE: Hilarious video of kids trying a dial-up connection
A TikToker has gone viral for claiming there is 'one sound' that is believed to forever separate the old generations from the new.
If you were born before 1998, you will be fooling yourself for not getting it right away. But those born after that date may have no idea about that: it's the dial-up tone.
The screeching sounds are called “handshaking” because the modem connected to the phone provides the internet.
A TikToker known as The glass sniper said in a video that received 300,000 views: “For we know the struggle we had to endure that the new generation will never have to endure,” he shared in the video.
A TikToker shared the fact on the social media platform, noting that when the older generation heard it, they would “cringe”
He posted a video using only the dial-up sound as context and received thousands of comments from generations who remember using it or hearing about it.
“There is only one sound in this entire world that will forever separate the old generation from the new,” The Glass Sniper said in the video.
He continued, “Because when the new generation hears it, they have no idea what we're talking about.
'But when the old generation hears it… we cringe!
'For we know the struggle we have had to endure, which the new generation will never have to endure.'
Dial-up connections started in the 1990s through the early 2000s and were used to access the Internet by connecting the modem to a home telephone line through their Internet Service Provider (ISP).
Dial-up connections took off in the 1990s to mid-2000s, but most millennials will remember the cringe sound the modem made when connecting to the Internet
When starting up the computer, the user called the ISP phone number using his computer and modem.
The ISP then answered the call and connected to the modem, emitting a series of beeps that lasted about 30 seconds or more.
The user gets Internet access once the ISP has verified the account, but loses connection when someone in the house answers the landline – something the younger generations will never appreciate.
When someone at home wants to use the phone, the person on the computer might hear them yelling to “turn off the computer” so they can make a call.
Dial-up connections fell by the wayside when internet companies' technology developed so far that they could no longer support dial-up technology.
When broadband connections hit the market in the mid-2000s, people started switching to the faster alternative.
In 2002, 55 million people in the US used dial-up internet; in 2003 that number had dropped to 51 million, but by September 2023 that number has dropped to just 400,000, according to the US Census Bureau.
At the time, some people resisted the new technology in favor of a slower service, with one person speaking out The New York Times in 2003 that while he passes the time waiting for data to be downloaded, “I take a newspaper and sit and read.”
Another person told the outlet, “I have friends who are high-tech computer engineers who are shocked by the fact that I have dial-up. “I just tell them I'm more patient than they are.”
Things have changed dramatically since then, as internet users expect ultra-fast, fast speeds online and can access the internet from virtually anywhere.
Patience with slow-moving technology may be waning, but at least the pre-1998 generations can be taken back to the so-called simpler times with just one sound.
“I just had to explain this to my 10 year old,” one person commented on the TikTok video.
She added: 'He thought it was the emergency noise or TV static.'