Before dating apps, swipes and DMs, if you wanted somebody’s number at a gay bar… you wrote it on a napkin. This week on A Little Throuple Tea, we’re going back to the internet that raised us — from life before Wi-Fi, screaming dial-up modems and AOL chat rooms to MySpace, smartphones, dating apps, algorithms and now AI knowing way too much about us. We talk about sneaking onto the internet after everyone went to bed, sharing one family computer, memorizing websites, and trying to get online without that dial-up sound announcing it to the entire house. But for us, the early internet was more than slow computers and AOL discs. Growing up gay in places where being queer could feel pretty isolating, chat rooms and sites like gay.com were some of the first places that showed us there were actually other gay people out there. Then MySpace arrived with profile songs, custom backgrounds and a Top 8 capable of destroying friendships. And then dating apps changed everything. We were around gay bars before and after apps took over, and the difference was wild. Before apps, you actually had to walk up to someone, talk, flirt and maybe leave with a phone number written on a napkin. Then suddenly you could stay home, open an app and skip the entire bar part. Somewhere along the way, the internet stopped living on a computer desk and moved into our pockets. Now we’re reachable all the time, news never stops, social media is full of algorithms and rage bait, and apparently our phones know what we bought even when we swear we never searched for it. Which brings us to AI. Is AI right now basically the internet in 1999? Useful, exciting, kind of dumb, and clearly not going anywhere? We talk about where we think it’s headed, what we’d let AI do for us, what we absolutely would NOT let it do, and whether today’s technology is going to look hilariously primitive five years from now. Then the Zero Technology Bowl of Chaos arrives and, naturally, technology stops being the weirdest part of the episode. We find out who would survive longest on a deserted island, who would destroy their chances on a reality competition, who might accidentally become internationally wanted, and why a Hawaii job offer somehow turned into a conversation about selling the house and moving to an island for approximately $3 a week. Also in this episode: • Oregon Trail trauma and dysentery• Sneaking onto dial-up without getting caught• AOL discs becoming coasters• Gay chat rooms and realizing you weren’t alone• MySpace profile songs and Top 8 drama• How dating apps changed gay bars• Why being reachable 24/7 feels like a leash• The creepy humidifier algorithm moment• Is today’s AI basically AOL in 1999?• Why Caleb does not want AI cooking his food• A Hawaii job offer starts household chaos• Zero Technology Bowl of Chaos• Maria messages us live after finishing Book One• Jamie from Canada gets us talking about therapy and mental health• Sassy Astrology tells us to stop signing up for the sequel• Daniel accidentally creates “Daniel Slips the Tip” This week’s Sassy Astrology also gives us two reminders we probably all need: Feel disappointed. Be pissed. Have your moment. Just don’t build a condo there. And: The past can teach you without becoming your permanent address. Tell us in the comments: What do YOU miss most about the old internet? And what piece of technology today could you absolutely not give up? Download the FREE Throuple Tea app on Apple and Android to chat with us while we record, send in a Throuple Hotline message, hang out on the Tea Wall and keep up with everything happening in our world. Check out Tres Amigos, Una Vida Books One and Two on Kindle Unlimited, Amazon, Etsy and Shopify. And make sure you read our weekly companion article with the Los Angeles Blade. Follow, subscribe, rate, review and send this episode to the friend who definitely had a dramatic MySpace Top 8. Throuple life. It doesn’t suck.
