What you've described is part of the culture shift I'm talking about. If you accept the Internet became popular in '85-'95 [1], someone 40 today would have bee

What you've described is part of the culture shift I'm talking about. If you accept the Internet became popular in '85-'95 [1], someone 40 today would have been 3yrs to 13yrs old in that span so right in the sweet spot of their formative years. As others pointed out, prior to the Internet there were BBS's, message boards, forums like CompuServe, AOL, etc. which were its precursors and what was known as going 'online' at the time. I did intend that to be included in my meaning when I used the term. Of course I'm speaking from personal experiences and your own may vary. :-) [1] https://www.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/short-history-internet#:~:text=about%20collection%20object-,The%20growth%20of%20the%20internet%2C%201985%E2%80%9395,read%20news%20and%20swap%20files https://www.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories....