This course explores the internet as a cultural and historical phenomenon, tracing its development from early computational ideas to the rise of digital culture and interactive media. Beginning with foundational technologies like the Jacquard Loom and Babbage’s Analytical Engine, we examine the emergence of networked computing, the World Wide Web, and the explosion of online communities that redefined communication, identity, and artistic production in the 1990s and early 2000s. A central focus is internet culture, including memes, digital art, remix culture, early social platforms, and interactive web-based games and artworks, from net.art experiments to Flash animations and viral browser games. The course concludes with the birth of YouTube and the foundations of contemporary social media, marking the moment when user-generated content became a dominant force in global media. Through historical texts, media artifacts, and analysis, students will critically engage with the internet’s impact on media production, storytelling, and cultural identity while examining the power structures embedded within digital platforms.