Just to flesh out my parent's point, while the internet existed and was widely available in 1995, its impact over 3 years was far less impressive than expected,

Just to flesh out my parent's point, while the internet existed and was widely available in 1995, its impact over 3 years was far less impressive than expected, but its impact over 20 years is far more impressive than expected. The internet "bubble" is the surest sign of this. Many people thought that everyone would buy groceries via the internet by the late 90s. Grocery delivery via the internet can be a good business, but it wasn't ready 3 years after web browsers got popular. The experience wasn't good enough, the cost of operation was too high, and not enough people were there to use it. Today though, I can speak a few sentences to a wireless black glass box I keep in my pocket, and groceries will arrive at my house in the hour. Beyond that though, I can instantly feel a tingling buzz when someone on the opposite side of the globe wants my attention. Major celebrities have lived their entire careers on the internet. World leaders converse and issue statements via a short-message public-ish broadcast system we can all see instantly. Multiple currencies powered solely by shared public work and cryptography are in wide use. Major mathematical discoveries have been made by free associations of mathematicians in blog discussion threads. That's just the tip of the iceberg, but it's already far more profound than online groceries. The effects of the internet over decades are essentially unfathomable, but we were far too optimistic about them in the short term.