3 ms·

Perhaps the new part is that it's now accessible to everyone and not just tech-savvy/nerd-types/households with enough income to blow on a PC.

• detaro 5y ago
  Which of the things the parent listed are for "tech-savvy/nerd-types"?
  • raydev 5y ago
    I was only aware of a few households that owned a computer in the late 90s/early 00s. And only one had reliable dialup. My closest friend got DSL in 2000-ish. But again, it was because his dad worked from home occasionally. No one else in my large extended family or friendgroup was online in any significant way. Among my peers at school, I think most of them had heard of AIM by that point, but most didn't have screennames. Personally, we couldn't afford a PC at that time.
    • deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    • detaro 5y ago
      Ok, fair point, 2001 is early. But you only need to give it a few years for that to change, and didn't need some fundamental new thing from there, it "just" became more widely accessible.
  • marginalia_nu 5y ago
    To be fair, late 90s/early 2000s Internet was pretty much run for tech-savvy/nerd-types. Kind of hard to imagine now, but it was considered quite eccentric to have an Internet-habit back then.