No reasonable person would choose to use #66FF33, or “vivid green,” in 2016. It’s simply too ugly. It’s as juvenile as a Lisa Frank cartoon alien and as jarring as a scream in a quiet room. This is a color that would and could only be used for a short period of time. It is a precious and awkward artifact in the life of the Internet. #66FF33 points to the Internet’s adolescence, to a short period of time when it was still taking shape and figuring out what it wanted to be.

“Vivid green” is not just a color safe hue; it’s among the safest. It could be used on any color monitor, even the crudest. It’s from a time when you were offered few choices, You had to make do with what you had. And you did. And it still felt magical because it was new. It was green. You were green.

#66FF33 is your best friend in ninth grade because you both had the same Ben Folds Five CD and flared jeans. By tenth grade, you’ve moved on to colors that suited you better, softer ones, easier ones to be around. But you cannot shake how the first one shaped you. It is always there with you in your heart and in your bones.

Sahar Baharloo holds a BA in Linguistics from Reed College, where she wrote her senior thesis on American Sign Language and the concept of visual "wordhood." She works professionally as a graphic designer for a radio station. She spends a lot of time thinking about color and communication.