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By Lydia Patrick
Life & Trends Reporter
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A worker's attempt to bond with her younger colleagues over an early internet memory didn't quite go to plan—and the internet is loving it, in particular millennials.
Lauren Weiss (@thelweiss) shared the moment on Threads, where it racked up over 8,800 likes and 184 reposts.
"I just said 'does anyone remember when a Gmail address was impossible to get and you needed an invite?' and all of my Gen Z coworkers were like what the actual f*** are you talking about and I crumbled into dust," she wrote.
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The post struck a chord with other users, who chimed in with their own gmail-related memories—and disbelief at how much time has passed since those early invite-only days.
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Gmail was launched by Google on April 1, 2004, initially as an internal tool developed by Paul Buchheit. At the time, it was revolutionary: offering 1GB of storage per user—over 100 times what competitors like Yahoo and Hotmail offered.
But getting an account wasn't easy. Gmail was invite-only for years, with invites becoming something of an internet currency. People traded them, begged for them, and even sold them on eBay.
This context made Weiss's post resonate with those who remember the struggle—and made Gen Z reactions all the more amusing.
"I made my daughter an email address when she was born so I could send her emails on special occasions (and she could have her real name as an email address). I've had friends of her ask me how I did it, I was like well, it was 18 f****** years ago," said Maya.
"I am 'I sold gmail [invites] on eBay' years old. And my gmail is over 20 years old and its my name. Since I have a common name in the Middle East I'm hundreds of people's recovery email. People also keep using my email to sign up to banking sites and such," shared another user.
"I remember and I also remember when Google tried to have its own social media," said another user.
"I'm Gen Z and my email address is my first and last name," one commenter pointed out—seemingly benefitting from the early foresight of a tech-savvy parent or just good luck.
"Younger millennial here: no but I do remember when you needed a college email address to sign up for Facebook," added another user, offering their own generational timestamp.
"I'm the OG of my name.name@gmail. I get random emails intended for people with a slight tweak to it, like a middle initial, all the time. It's a blessing and a curse... there are at least 4 of them, and I get all kinds of stuff that should not be emailed to strangers—membership info, account info, bills, stuff from elderly relatives about funeral arrangements. I sometimes spend time trying to figure out who it was supposed to go to. I hope they do the same for me!" shared another.
"I also have an email address with a period between my name and I get emails from other variations of the same name. It's so annoying!!" added another.
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