You're young. Young enough to have to google my username meaning. Maybe also google what GIF means: Graphics Interchange Format. Long tima go you could find images on the internet, and they were always GIF, because JPG didn't exist.
But yes, it's quite strange nowadays, I agree <grin>
Oh, yes, I used the net before smileys were a thing :-)
I'm not quite that young. Netizen is a "citizen of the internet", IIRC. More specifically, it's a portmanteau of "internet" and "citizen".
I had also heard what the meaning of GIF was, though not so often that I could remember it off the top of my head.
I'm not quite as old as the JPG format, but I do still remember using dial-up. I still remember accidentally logging into the internet when my dad was on the phone one day. I could hear his voice through the computer speakers. I immediately closed the browser. It was something that'd, surprisingly, never happened while I was on the computer before.
