I think it was in 1994 that I first installed a modem in my very slow PC and signed up with America On Line. Via Andrew Sullivan, Leon Neyfakh thinks that 1994 was the year that the internet became a major part of our lives not just a tech curiosity.
The Web had existed for a couple of years as a kind of insiders’ tech experiment, and the Internet had been around longer. But it was 1994 when the world pivoted, and fast. The number of websites grew from 623 at the beginning of the year, according to one study, to more than 10,000 at the end. E-mail quickly spread from universities to offices and homes.
There was email back then but there were few “blogs” and no Google. Many people resisted the WEB then but acceptance came rapidly. I think it was 1966 when I set my mother up with my old computer and a Juno email account. She was in her late 70s then and she was thrilled.
Dial up was a pain and very slow bat back then DSL was not enough better to justify the additional cost. It wasn’t until 2002 or 2003 that I switched to cable broadband, less than 10 mbps back then, I currently pay for 50 but usually get closer to 60.