History Main / TheWebAlwaysExisted

** Note that within the setting, the Virtual Adepts manage this trope twice, as on top of discovering that the internet had its own spirit-world and so had always existed, they had in fact already invented a primitive text-only internet (roughly equivalent to UsefulNotes/{{Usenet}}) back in the 19th century. And as an aspect of the setting was that the internet as the mundanes experience it has always been a considerably backwards version compared to the version of the internet used by the VA, then if a mundane went back in time to [=WW1=] or [=WW2=] with the right equipment they might have full access to an equivalent of Website/TVTropes. Or their equipment would explode from Paradox. Or it wouldn't work. We don't recommend you test it.

* The entire premise of the educational series ''Newscast From The Past'', with each episode giving a dateline from sometime in the Middle Ages, and complete with "commercial breaks" advertising things that would have been in vogue at the time (although they still subscribed to the idea that Europe demanded spices to cover up the taste of bad meat).

* ''VideoGame/SouthParkTheFracturedButWhole'': DoubleSubverted. When traveling back in time, you get a message stating that you can't use Cconstagram because it hasn't been invented yet, but later, after going even further back in time, you get to a point where you take selfies with three people, who instantly proceed to follow you on Coonstagram. This is either a PlotHole or GameplayAndStorySegregation. It is difficult to tell which since the world of ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' runs largely on the RuleOfFunny.

* ''LightNovel/NoGameNoLife'': whatever is keeping Sora and Shiro in Disboard is also powering their technology - they never have to charge their smartphone or tablet. It's implied that whatever gave the Old Gods their divinity is technological in nature, so that makes sense.

You [[TimeTravel travel back in time]] to TheMiddleAges or OneMillionBC, turn on your TimeMachine's computer and... there's Google! Apparently the Web has always been there... humans just discovered how to access it in the early [[TheNineties 1990s]]. This phenomenon results from filmmakers wanting to have their time-traveler show off the [[ThisIsMyBoomstick World Wide Boomstick]] without letting logic get in the way. However, anyone with a passing understanding of technology will realize that this implies the Web was always floating out there and that people just needed the right equipment to access it. ([[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot Which, we grant you, is a pretty nifty idea for a story gimmick, but this trope more often occurs because the writers just weren't paying attention.]])

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* The iPhone in ''Webcomic/TheWayOfTheMetagamer'' works perfectly within the Medieval world of ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''.
* Inverted in ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}''. The entire planet is [[ApocalypseHow destroyed by meteors]], the homes of the SBURB/SGRUB players are transported into the game itself, and yet the Internet still works fine.

* Inverted in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''; when Lisa sets up Grandpa's old radio in the living room and turns it on, it plays the Glenn Miller Orchestra and FDR's "infamy" speech.
* Averted in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "Roswell That Ends Well," where upon being sent back in time to 1947, the Planet Express ship crashes because the satellite network that it relies on around Earth to navigate doesn't exist yet.
** Also in an inversion of this, their chronometer, that should work fine in the past, is [[RuleOfFunny turned into a pin-up calendar.]]
* Happens a few episodes of ''WesternAnimation/TimeSquad'' with both internet and radio.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'' episode where Bubba the Caveduck has his debut, Huey, Dewey and Louie [[ALittleSomethingWeCallRockAndRoll introduce him to rock'n'roll]]. By bringing a radio into the [[OneMillionBC stone age]].
* Some versions of ''WesternAnimation/LibertysKids'' include short news reports -- ''television'' news reports -- delivered by Benjamin Franklin (voiced by Walter Cronkite) as a FramingDevice.

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* In one ''ComicStrip/ThePerishers'' strip, Wellington had a really, really old radio -- on which he somehow picked up a news bulletin about the ''Titanic''.
[[/folder]]

** Note that within the setting, the Virtual Adepts manage this trope twice, as on top of discovering that the internet had its own spirit-world and so had always existed, they had in fact already invented a primitive text-only internet (roughly equivalent to Website/{{Usenet}}) back in the 19th century. And as an aspect of the setting was that the internet as the mundanes experience it has always been a considerably backwards version compared to the version of the internet used by the VA, then if a mundane went back in time to [=WW1=] or [=WW2=] with the right equipment they might have full access to an equivalent of Website/TVTropes. Or their equipment would explode from Paradox. Or it wouldn't work. We don't recommend you test it.

But with the advent of really big hard drive spaces (A few terabytes would be sufficient to get a good portion of Wiki/TheOtherWiki, for starters), one could conceivably download big, giant portions of the internet that is relevant and bring it back through time for later access. Of course, you must be pretty darn {{crazy prepared}} if you actually do this in the first place.

** Leading to a scene where Stalin berates his subordinates because they're citing "old {{Wiki/Wikipedia}} articles" when he wants up-to-date information.

** Note that within the setting, the Virtual Adepts manage this trope twice, as on top of discovering that the internet had its own spirit-world and so had always existed, they had in fact already invented a primitive text-only internet (roughly equivalent to Website/{{Usenet}}) back in the 19th century. And as an aspect of the setting was that the internet as the mundanes experience it has always been a considerably backwards version compared to the version of the internet used by the VA, then if a mundane went back in time to [=WW1=] or [=WW2=] with the right equipment they might have full access to an equivalent of Wiki/TVTropes. Or their equipment would explode from Paradox. Or it wouldn't work. We don't recommend you test it.

** Outright stated in ''Anime/DigimonXrosWars'', but it isn't certain if this confirms it for any of the other ''Digimon'' installments.

* Whoopi Goldberg's character in the TV film ''A Knight in Camelot'' could access the Web while in TheMiddleAges. This doesn't even get into the lack of electricity...

[[caption-width-right:350:[[http://www.cracked.com/article/16_20-websites-from-before-internet-was-invented Hm. It's probably down for maintenance...]]]]

* Lampshaded in ''WebComic/AxisPowersHetalia'' when America takes out his laptop to check Google Maps... in 1942.

* The protagonist of the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fic ''FanFic/ThroughTheEyesOfAnotherPony'' discovers that his smartphone still has internet access in another world, completely inexplicably. To the author's credit, at least it's not just there solely for coolness; the Internet access is used to jump-start a plot peripety, and then disappears.
* ''FanFic/TheElementsOfHarmonyAndTheSaviorOfWorlds'' also uses cellphone-signal-in-Equestria as a plot point, as it turns out that radio signals are capable of passing through the Rainbow Bridge from G1, which Twilight and Rainbow Dash accidentally reopened in Chapter 1. (LongStory.) [[spoiler:It turns out that this works both ways, and people in Kentucky can now pick up Equestrian local radio, throwing a large wrench into Megan's plan to make the general public aware of the fact she has a doorway to AnotherDimension in her backyard in a somewhat controlled manner.]]

Contrast SuddenLackOfSignal.

* Done deliberately on ''{{Series/Fringe}}'' with the mysterious [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_stations number stations]]. It is mentioned that when Marconi first activated his radio they were already transmitting.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': It's standard for companions in the New Series to get cellphones with "universal roaming", so they can make phone calls -- and, less often, search the web -- wherever they are in time and space. It's explicitly the case that this connects (presumably via the TARDIS) to their own time period -- although WordOfGod is that the first time the Doctor did it (in "The End of the World") he messed it up, and Rose actually called Jackie the day before she left. And in Series 11, the Doctor even mentions lending one to Elvis, which becomes a plot point in the short story

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': It's standard for companions in the New Series to get cellphones with "universal roaming", so they can make phone calls -- and, less often, search the web -- wherever they are in time and space.
** And in Series 11, the Doctor even mentions lending one to Elvis.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales'' episode where Bubba the Caveduck has his debut, Huey, Dewey and Louie [[ALittleSomethingWeCallRockAndRoll introduce him to rock'n'roll]]. By bringing a radio into the [[OneMillionBC stone age]].

* Averted in ''DragonBall''. Future Trunks remarks that the GPS in his watch is not functioning properly because the satellites it is supposed to rely on have not been built yet. However, he can make it work on an older type of satellite.