>>490126839once broadband became cheap enough for your average family, all bets were off.
it was no longer turn computer on, wait 5 minutes,
turn modem on, let boot up,
find ISP short cut
enter phone number (or use drop down provided)
connect
(usually) fail connection retry
after about 10-20 minutes you were on.
BUT once connected what do you do?
THAT was the road block for 99% of the cancer. The simply could not figure out what to do once connected. Search engines such as yahoo, altavista, or lycos were no commonplace, and their algorithms were all different, meaning each engine gave different results, meaning, WHAT THE FUCK DO I LOOK AT AND WHICH IS THE RIGHT ONE FUCK IT IM GOING OUTSIDE!
like you said, we ended up with our own private playground where everyone shared similar views, meaning we all got along with one another.