I started using internet in 1996 I think. And I remember reading an article at that time saying that we should enjoy internet now before it becomes full of ads

I started using internet in 1996 I think. And I remember reading an article at that time saying that we should enjoy internet now before it becomes full of ads and taken over by corporations. At that time, I didn't get the point of the article and couldn't envision what internet would become. To answer the question, I remember using IRC and newsgroups. I spent nights trying to find interesting content on the web (mostly personal webpages, before blogging was a thing). There was no wikipedia, no youtube, search engines sucked. Besides, there wasn't that much content in my language and I didn't speak so much English at the time. I also remember when Youtube started. I naively wondered how personal videos could ever be interesting!