Born in 1992: The Internet Teen Pioneer
Logging Into the Future
Born in 1992? Then you remember begging someone to get off the phone so you could get online.
The story
The sign-up sheet hung on a clipboard by the computer at the North Platte Public Library, on a piece of yarn so nobody could walk off with the pen. At the top, in Tess Novak's mother's handwriting, it said: Internet, thirty minutes, please be courteous to others waiting.
Born in 1992: The Internet Teen Pioneer is a first-person life story of a girl born in March 1992 in North Platte, Nebraska, a railroad town. Her father repairs railcars at Bailey Yard, and her mother works at the library. Her older brother Cody is the first to get on the family's used Gateway computer. Tess is next.
The story follows her through the years when the internet arrived in the average American home. There is a first screen name, a Buddy List, an away message, and the long wait for the phone line to free up. At thirteen she finds a forum with an age limit she ignores. At fourteen she opens a phone bill that is not what her father expected. Twilight arrives in 2008 and a mother drives her to opening night. Layoffs hit the yard and a family table has to change.
Graduation, a friend's enlistment, a late-night call from North Dakota, and a job reading the worst things people say online, and deleting them, take her from Nebraska to Omaha. A friend sets her up on a blind date in Lincoln by lying to them both. A pandemic begins on a Friday in March 2020.
Chapter titles are lines from the family kitchen, from Brb to Turn It Off to Pass the Rolls. A timeline of 1992, famous people born that year, and a look at what the year means in other cultures appear at the back.
It is a heartfelt gift for anyone who grew up with a screen name.
A few things that happened in 1992
- 1992 — April 29–May 4 — riots in Los Angeles after the Rodney King verdict
- 1992 — July 25–August 9 — the Barcelona Summer Olympics; the U.S. "Dream Team" wins basketball gold on…
- 1992-04-06 — Barney & Friends premieres on PBS
- 1992-05-22 — Johnny Carson hosts his final Tonight Show
- 1992-08-11 — Mall of America opens in Bloomington, Minnesota
Also born in 1992
- Miley Cyrus — Became a household name at 13 as Hannah Montana, then reinvented herself again and again: "Party in the U.S.A." (2009), "Wrecking Ball" (2013), and "Flowers" (2023), which spent weeks at No. 1 and earned her first Grammy Awards. The daughter of country star Billy Ray Cyrus, she is one of the defining pop figures of her generation
- Selena Gomez — Started on Barney & Friends as a child, starred as Alex Russo on Wizards of Waverly Place, and became a pop star with hits including "Come & Get It" and the No. 1 "Lose You to Love Me" (2019). She co-stars in Hulu's Only Murders in the Building and founded the cosmetics company Rare Beauty
- Demi Lovato — Star of Camp Rock and Sonny with a Chance; singer of "Heart Attack" (2013) and "Sorry Not Sorry" (2017)
- Neymar — Brazilian soccer star who won Olympic gold in 2016, moved to Paris Saint-Germain in 2017 for a world-record transfer fee, and passed Pelé as Brazil's all-time leading scorer in 2023
- Taylor Lautner — Jacob Black, the werewolf, in the Twilight films (2008–2012) — the face of every "Team Jacob" T-shirt in America