From Yahoo to UPI: My Digital Growing Pains

“We were excited without a clue we were standing at the beginning of a revolution.”

I was in sixth standard when we got our first computer lab at school. We removed our shoes outside the lab without knowing that one day, we’d be stepping into a portal that would change the world.

Back then, I thought the virus people warned about was the same one that gave me a cold. It didn’t take long to realize I was more serious about the computer’s health than my own.

My best friend was the first among us to get a PC at home. That’s where I first heard The Summer of ‘69. He also played Aap Ki Kashish. We didn’t know it then, but those speakers were ushering us into the age of digital intimacy.

Logging On, Growing Up

By the time I reached 11th standard, I had moved to Jharkhand. And yes, the computer lab became my go-to spot for impressing girls.

That’s when I created my first Yahoo account and signed up for Orkut.

Believe it or not—I still have access to that Yahoo inbox. I just logged in while writing this post. Feels like a dusty treasure chest. Yahoo felt super cool back then. It was my first experience of digital convergence.

Still, I didn’t have many friends online. I would go to cyber cafés, always booking a corner seat so no one could watch what I was doing—exploring different platforms, not knowing whether I was learning or just clicking randomly.

Cyber Cafés, Tiny Screens, and Sashi’s Nokia

I think they charged ₹40 per hour back in 2011–2013. Eventually, that came down to ₹15. That’s where I accessed Facebook and cleaned up spam from my Gmail account.

A friend named Sashi had a Nokia button phone with internet access. Sometimes, I’d borrow it just to check Facebook notifications on that tiny screen. That’s how people watched music videos back then.

It was Sashi who said, “You can use the internet to learn stuff.” And that idea stuck with me.

The Many Accounts I Left Behind

I lost access to my first Facebook account. For a while, I could still see it from the outside—until one day, it just disappeared. Honestly? It saved me some embarrassment.

My current Facebook profile was created in 2011, and I was overjoyed to reconnect with schoolmates. There was no Messenger then. There was a Poke button, though. And the chaos of being tagged in posts that had nothing to do with me. Thankfully, the approval feature came soon after.

Once I got my Nokia 5233, the internet came to my fingertips. I signed up for every platform I could find—hi5, MySpace, Twitter… most of which I’ve forgotten now.

Only three people from my contacts had WhatsApp when I joined. And then there was WeChat—with that wild feature where you could toss a message in a bottle into the ocean and wait for someone, somewhere, to open it.

I joined Instagram in 2015, when I got my first Android.

The Rise and Fade of Facebook

Facebook used to be fun. Then came the echo chambers. Then came the sponsored posts, climbing over everything like ads in a newspaper stuffed inside your door.

Yes, revenue matters. But do ads need to hijack the soul of a platform?

Still, I believe Facebook could be powerful again—a platform that blends expression, conversation, and connection. I just need to enjoy my own timeline again.

Swipe, Tap, Pay

The first e-payments I made were using debit cards. I even used Oxigen Wallet, way before UPI took over. Today, everything’s gone cashless.

Honestly? I find it liberating. No more cash bundles. No more queuing up at ATMs.

Though yes, a completely cashless economy has its risks, I’ll keep using it—for now. Unless they start charging me for it. Then? We’ll talk.

Pause. Look Around.

Let’s take a moment and really look at how far we’ve come:

• From removing shoes outside the lab… to removing passwords with face unlock.
• From commanding DOS… to prompting ChatGPT.
• From using the internet for fun… to being unable to live without it.

Yes, the list of basic needs has changed:
Food, Clothes, Shelter… and Internet.