4. The Dawn of the Internet Influencer + Cyberbullying

In this episode we dive into Mandela effects, what year the earth ended, and why someone might want to lucid dream their way outta this place.

Kicking off a brand new era of One Time On The Internet, your deep dive into days of the webs past. Today we're getting acquainted by sharing a bit of our personal internet history!

On this final episode of the History of YouTube trilogy (and also the Season One finale of One Time On The Internet), we're talking about VSauce, Machinima, College Humor, and the Vlog Brothers. Hang out for with us for one last time this season as we discuss these four wildly different behemoths of YouTube and their impact on the platform and internet culture at large.

On this episode we welcome guest Ian Hecox, the co-creator and star of Smosh, as we dive into more history of Early YouTube, including Machinima, College Humor, VSauce, Vlog Brothers, and more!

Do you know why the YouTube logo is red? Any thoughts on what Janet Jackson has to do with the creation of the platform? Oh YouTube, the website we know today as a resource for your instructional videos on how to make everything from cabinets to bongs, or watching video game walkthroughs, or perhaps even comedy sketches, started with a completely different reason in mind. In this episode we walk through how YouTube became YouTube (the founders and what their intentions were), and the early influencers of the platform, people like Brookers, one of the original creators who became huge and then whose content is now largely gone. We get into it.

Welcome to the world of animated avatar streamers & Influencers. From the dawn of their creation in Japan with Tokimeki Memorial, a video game that created one of the first VTubers, to Code Miko, a current Twitch streamer who is pushing the bounds of what it means to be a VTuber and constantly breaking the rules to do it, we’re exploring the evolution of these VTubers. And with it, the discovery that sometimes people’s identities are sometimes more important as avatars than their real life identities.

Piracy. You know you’ve done it! And on this episode, we’re exposing you as we talk about two stories that highlight the wild wild west of the early bit torrent days. In story #1, Saige and Harry cover Kim Dotcom, the mega personality behind Mega Upload. And in Story #2, Rowan and Bijan discuss KickassTorrents, a bit torrent website that became famous for the US Justice Department going after its founder Artem Vaulin, his trial on copyright infringement, and his travails in Poland. (edited) [9:13 PM]

In 2003, Linden Labs created Second Life, an online space billed as “A New Society. A New World. Created by You”. It was a place where people could create avatars to meet, travel, and prop up in-game economies that would generate real-world money. This was a new kind of place on the internet. And… It. Became. Wild. In this episode we dive into the stories of Second Life that put this virtual world on the map. We talk about rise and fall of Gotcha Machines, Woodbury University, the “griefer” groups that formed to wreak havoc and the “Justice League” that formed in response to fight them. And we’re talking about Anshe Chung, the virtual real estate mogul that CNN called “the Rockefeller of Second Life".

Malware, Spyware, Ransomware: crypto worms created to unleash mayhem, but sometimes joy. These cyber attacks of nefarious codes have gone by various names over the years, and we’re talking about some of the most expensive and some of the funniest. From the I Love You virus to WannaCry to the Pikachu virus, we’ve got some stories for you. Also, Mark Zuckerberg’s cake may or may not have been discussed… again.

On this episode we’re talking about our favorite memes ever… and a few we made (and by “we” we mean Harry)