References to email/internet in later BSC books?

[Enigma]

I was a hardcore BSC fan in the late 1980s and early 1990s before most people had even heard of the internet or email. I stopped reading them around 1993 but realize that they kept publishing books until 2000. Upon reading about some of the later books, it seemed that e-mail was introduced and Mallory discovers the boarding school she wanted to attend by "surfing the web". What year (and which numbered books) do the BSC start using the internet? I imagine around 1997 or 1998ish is that is when I feel internet went fully mainstream throughout America? Of course it pales compared to the internet and social media today but sending an e-mail (as opposed to writing snail mail or calling long distance) or look up simple things on websites (rather than browsing through tons of reference books) was considered "cool and new" for most people back in the late 1990s. Can anyone tell me which is the first book that shows an email or even, better scan in the image of the first "BSC email?"

Thanks.

[CharlotteTJohanssen]

Oh man, I know in ff they have the email for sure. I think it would be in the later series though. I'm kinda curious so I'm gonna dig for the books in my closet tomorrow. I wanna say least after the little princess book.

[Enigma]

Dec 10, 2015 0:35:16 GMT -5 CharlotteTJohanssen said:

Oh man, I know in ff they have the email for sure. I think it would be in the later series though. I'm kinda curious so I'm gonna dig for the books in my closet tomorrow. I wanna say least after the little princess book.

Thanks a bunch! I really appreciate it. I'm tempted to order some of the FF or later books just to read them and compare them to the style of the earlier books. Do you know where I could order some old copies cheap?

[CharlotteTJohanssen]

First I'm going to check the FF threads first, because I'm pretty positive that's where it first happened. I remember the all new Mallory pike pretty well (one of my favs) and there might have been a reference to email but I'm not positively positive. I have a vague memory of being a guest here and remember saying this was the first book where email happened.


I don't know about cheap but I got a ton of mine on Amazon and better world books and they're around 3-4 bucks. I liked better world because I'm close to where they ship them from and all the money goes to charities.

[mallorypike]

I know for sure there's email and Internet references in the FF series, but in the later books of the BSC, I don't know.

Oh, I actually haven't read The All New Mallory Pike, but online it says she and the BSC communicated by email and she has her own email address. So CharlotteTJohanssen you're right. I don't know if there's other books before then that mentioned email and Internet.

[booboobrewer]

Claudia and Janine use the internet in Claudia's Big Party (1998).

[CharlotteTJohanssen]

I didn't go through all the later books, but the first email would be from Claudia to Stacey in the bsc friends forever book. Claudia caught Janine using her computer on a no work/technology vacation. I don't know how to send a pic.

[wanderingfrog]

I remember that in Kristy's Worst Idea someone says something about using the Internet to help with BSC business somehow, but it's supposed to be a joke at the time, like the idea of using the Internet for BSC stuff would be completely over the top. Which I guess it would have been in 1996!

And it's not an Internet reference, but I just read Welcome to the BSC, Abby recently (published October 1995), and I noticed that Abby mentions her mom has a "cellular phone." I don't recall there being any reference to cell phones before that, although car phones were mentioned several times earlier in the series! Remember car phones?

[CharlotteTJohanssen]

There is a reference to email in Abby's Un-Valentine too. I didn't check my later books but was there a printed email in any of before the ff books?

[Enigma]

Dec 10, 2015 21:43:32 GMT -5 wanderingfrog said:

I remember that in Kristy's Worst Idea someone says something about using the Internet to help with BSC business somehow, but it's supposed to be a joke at the time, like the idea of using the Internet for BSC stuff would be completely over the top. Which I guess it would have been in 1996!

And it's not an Internet reference, but I just read Welcome to the BSC, Abby recently (published October 1995), and I noticed that Abby mentions her mom has a "cellular phone." I don't recall there being any reference to cell phones before that, although car phones were mentioned several times earlier in the series! Remember car phones?

Thanks for all the feedback; the last book that I read as a regular BSC reader was  www.amazon.com/Jessi-Bad-Baby-Sitter-Baby-Sitters-Club/dp/059047006X and then from then onwards, I might have occasionally flipped through a BSC book at the bookstore.

The BSC was a huge obsession of mine from 1988 until 1992 and then it started to decline (Unlike the BSC girls I was an outcast in middle school and high school among my peers so the BSC books functioned as "my therapy/fantasy friends"). I was seen as odd and immature by my peers but popular with young children and did quite a bit of baby-sitting in high school so I got some real world baby-sitting tips from the BSC books. My obsession with the BSC resurfaced rather recently so I did some research on them online as well as bought some used BSC books at a thrift shop including "Claudia and Mean Janine" (which states that Janine only cares about her computer and goes to the "computer library" in her college class-published in 1988 so the imagine the perception that people had of computers then as something only a nerd would use).

Anyway, I am planning to order several of the later BSC books as ebooks (I prefer the real copies but ebooks are cheaper) just to get caught up on the series over the Christmas Holidays. I am going to ask for a list of 10 books that you'd recommend from book 70 onwards. I know I want to read Graduation Day and Kristy's Worst Idea.

[Enigma]

Dec 10, 2015 21:43:32 GMT -5 wanderingfrog said:

I remember that in Kristy's Worst Idea someone says something about using the Internet to help with BSC business somehow, but it's supposed to be a joke at the time, like the idea of using the Internet for BSC stuff would be completely over the top. Which I guess it would have been in 1996!

And it's not an Internet reference, but I just read Welcome to the BSC, Abby recently (published October 1995), and I noticed that Abby mentions her mom has a "cellular phone." I don't recall there being any reference to cell phones before that, although car phones were mentioned several times earlier in the series! Remember car phones?

Downloaded Kristy's Worst Idea, read it for the first time today, and found that first joke reference to internet on the BSC: here it is (click to read it enlarged clearly):

[memory]

i am almsot 100% sure Mallory has an e-=mail adresse when she went to boarding shool

[anzuhana]

I'm pretty sure the internet is mentioned in FF Stacey's Problem.

[inge]

That blows my mind! I haven't read beyond a certain point, certainly pre-internet, just can't imagine the girls online. To me they live forever in the 90s

[mallorypike]

in Stacey's Ex-Boyfriend, there's the subplot about the strawberry patch, and one of the BSC members (I think Abby?) found a forum about strawberries online!