Can’t believe I am going to admit this, but I remember what the Internet used to look like. I was in college in the late 80’s, using the new fangled communication tool to converse with friends at other SUNY colleges on a DOS-based computer.

I was in the Bay Area in the late 90’s, surrounded by people so pumped up on the possibilities presented by the world wide web that they ate the skeptical for breakfast.

I now work for a predominately internet-based business and shop mostly online. It has been thrilling to participate in the web’s evolution.

So, I felt kind of ridiculous when I first began to learn about web design.  I hated to admit to myself that I had never given much thought to what was behind the sites I frequented or helped market.  A bunch of techie code was responsible for the pretty pictures and the catchy sales pitches, and I was never going to be able to understand it.  Then, I was introduced to WordPress and “/wp-admin.”

What?!  You have got to be kidding me?  I just type in /wp-admin after the URL and I can get into the back-end of a website?  There is a back-end to a website?  They gave me the secret codes, and I was in, creating pages and posting blogs entries.  The ease of use was truly amazing to me.  My teachers had created a monster.

Now, I own a URL.  I am constantly online searching out the coolest (hopefully free) WordPress themes.  I have become a bitter critic of poorly designed and needlessly user-unfriendly sites.  I am annoying my employer with suggestions for plug-in after plug-in. The world is my oyster.

Site-builders like WordPress have truly given “everyperson” a place on the web, allowing for the much-less tech savvy to put up a page and share it with the world.  Besides, though it looks quite different, the Internet is still what it was back in the 80’s in the computer center at SUNY Geneseo – a communication tool used to converse with friends.

Have a question? Roundpeg, an Indianapolis web design company, can help.