Grandma Finds the Internet

What is a... Google?

On December 21, 2005, a stock photographer captured an image that would define a generation gap. An elderly woman peers at a laptop screen, glasses perched on her nose, expression caught somewhere between confusion and concern. The photo was uploaded to Corbis as "Elderly Woman Looking at Computer Screen."

Six years later, on February 4, 2011, Reddit discovered her.

Grandma Finds the Internet became the avatar of technological bewilderment. The format paired her confused expression with captions imagining her first encounters with internet culture. "Types 'Google' into Google / Breaks the internet." "Sees NSFW / Calls the police."

The meme peaked between 2012-2013, hitting a high point when a Netflix-themed post gathered over 18,000 upvotes. Major outlets picked up the story. Internet Grandma had become a celebrity.

The format captured something bittersweet: the genuine confusion of older generations confronting technology designed without them in mind. It was affectionate mockery—we laughed because we remembered teaching our own grandparents to double-click, to explain what a browser was, to reassure them that the computer wasn't broken, it just needed to restart.

The stock photo model never came forward. She exists only as Grandma, frozen in eternal confusion, forever discovering the internet for the first time.

The meme faded as the joke became reality—eventually, all our grandparents got on Facebook, and the confusion wasn't funny anymore. It was just family dinner.

Rest easy, Internet Grandma. You figured it out eventually. We all did.