I would say by 1996 it was weird not to know about it. It probably wasnt until 1999 or 2000 that it was weird not to have it.

You mean, like when would people look at you funny or crack a joke if you didn't have it? I guess that would've been by about 2002. By then, I think it fully reached the mainstreamization point of being seen as essential almost the way TV and radio are. Everyone who wanted it probably already had it by then. It was very close in the late '90s, though, and definitely a prevailing part of pop culture. I'd say the turn from 1996 into 1997 was when almost everyone knew about it. There were lots of references to it then in songs, TV shows, etc.

Honestly, it was a slow process from about 1994 to 2002 to go from obscurity to being ingrained in everyone. That's almost nothing compared to, say automobiles.

2000, and the day was the day Motley Crue released New Tattoo.

I was a nerd when Crue reached its 80s hair-metal zenith.  Insofar as the headbangers (or the new wavers, or anyone else popular) noticed me, we got along OK.  Never got my nerdy butt stuffed into a locker for being into any particular style of music.  (which was good, on account of I was into everything at once, including both metal and wave).  Never a victim of bullying. 

The Wavers realized that in some small way, the weird little computers that I was playing with had something to do with the production of electronic music, and while they had plenty of reasons to mock me (bad fashion skills, poor knowledge of the right clubs, etc), being into computers was never one of them.  The metalheads, on the other hand, had absolutely no use for computers.  Computers were for people like accountants -- people who were less than men -- and musically, their only practical use was for making music that metalheads hated. 

In short, I didn't have any real quarrel with the popular kids in school.  I never had any twisted revenge fantasies. But if I had, the best I would have come up with was the old "in 20 years, you'll be pumping my gas or selling me real estate" gag.

"Dude.  You know that pentagram on your T-Shirt (from Shout at the Devil, and how it freaks out your religious parents?  Well, within 20 years, the guy singing for that band with the pentagram on your T-Shirt?  Yeah, him.  Anyways, he's gonna be singing lyrics like 'Internet jet set / my credit card's in debt', 'dot-com, dot-com', 'my URL / has gone all to hell', 'HTTP!  I'm addicted to technology'", and people like me are gonna be the ones who made up all the things he's gonna singing about, and the reason he's gonna be singing it is because a bunch of nerds got their hands on a video of him porking his wife, and he's gonna be singing it because he thinks it's as hysterically funny as we do."

Revenge of the Nerds:  Revenge is a dish best served at 192/44. 

(The Metalhead, on the other hand, could suggest that if the band puts their savings together, they could still be the first band in orbit, even if not the First Band on the Moon, and if he were to say such a thing at a reunion, I'd hope to hell he turns out to have been right.)

Honestly, it was a slow process from about 1994 to 2002 to go from obscurity to being ingrained in everyone.
I wouldn't necessarily call the movement "slow", it just took awhile for all the "classes" to get it. I remember reading a really interesting article about the world wide web in Rolling Stone in either 93 or 94(forgot which year), and it sounded like something that would happen way in the future. Couldn't imagine actually using it then. In 1995 is when the internet basically hit society over the head with a sledgehammer(yeah it was around before then in primitive form, but not like in 95). I bought a computer and got online(I signed up with AOL and Prodigy), and it literally blew my mind. I knew that life would never be the same with society having access to this monster.

The first big internet star was Alanis Morrissette. During mid/late 95, people were talking about her all over the web. The big movie star was Sandra Bullock. Tons of sites/message boards being dedicated to her. When people found out she was online, and surfed quite a bit, people started acting like her. This most likely started the trend of people impersonating celebrities/other people.

Chat rooms were a huge craze at the time. Message boards were pretty active, but they looked nothing like what forums look like now. They were very primitive.

Having to pay by the hour was insane. I still can't believe they got away with that.

For the more affluent/educated people, 1998 is the year when they all pretty much had the internet. For the rest of the country, probably around 2000 is when they all came around to it. By 01/02 it became almost necessary to have it. Before then you could at least get by without it.

i say 200 andddddd 03-04?

For the more affluent/educated people, 1998 is the year when they all pretty much had the internet. For the rest of the country, probably around 2000 is when they all came around to it. By 01/02 it became almost necessary to have it. Before then you could at least get by without it.

Yeah, that sounds accurate. Especially since so many traditional things are "online" now, it's become a commonplace thing. Although there's still people who don't have it (probably moreso older folks who don't feel as comfortable adapting) and it's not totally essential to living the way electricity is. Then again, that's probably the case with anything. I'm sure quite a few people in the '80s were reluctant to get VCRs, especially if they didn't see as much of a use for it.

P.S. When I said it was a slow process, I more meant that it seemed to slowly mainstreamize a little bit at a time. Although I guess 1997 was the first "Internet year" if I had to draw a line. That's when the pop culture references became common.

What's more interesting to me is cable TV, I remember first getting cable in my home in 1990, we went from the standard package to something like 30 channels, that was a big big deal. ESPN on 15, VHI and MTV on 28 and 29, E on 30. I thought that was the time everybody got cable. Talking to friends recently, some of them only advanced past the basic 2-13 setup about 3-4 years ago. To me that's unfathomable! Especially since I've been on 100 channels since about 2000 or so.

Around 1999, near the beginning of the whole Y2K scare.

You mean, like when would people look at you funny or crack a joke if you didn't have it? I guess that would've been by about 2002. By then, I think it fully reached the mainstreamization point of being seen as essential almost the way TV and radio are. Everyone who wanted it probably already had it by then. It was very close in the late '90s, though, and definitely a prevailing part of pop culture. I'd say the turn from 1996 into 1997 was when almost everyone knew about it. There were lots of references to it then in songs, TV shows, etc.

Honestly, it was a slow process from about 1994 to 2002 to go from obscurity to being ingrained in everyone. That's almost nothing compared to, say automobiles.



Yeah, I'd say by 1997 everyone pretty much knew about it, but it didn't really become essential until 2001 at the earliest, 2003 at the latest. I also agree with what agoraphobicwhacko said. 1995 seems like the year the internet started to become a household thing. There was alot of talk about it around 1993/1994 that the public at large really started to find out about it, but at that time most people seemed to not really be sure what it was.

It seems like now we are reaching another divide regarding the internet. Back in 2002 or so it was the divide between those that had the internet and those that didn't, now its becoming a divide between those that have a high speed internet connection, and those that still use dial-up.

Yeah, I'd say by 1997 everyone pretty much knew about it, but it didn't really become essential until 2001 at the earliest, 2003 at the latest. I also agree with what agoraphobicwhacko said. 1995 seems like the year the internet started to become a household thing. There was alot of talk about it around 1993/1994 that the public at large really started to find out about it, but at that time most people seemed to not really be sure what it was.

It seems like now we are reaching another divide regarding the internet. Back in 2002 or so it was the divide between those that had the internet and those that didn't, now its becoming a divide between those that have a high speed internet connection, and those that still use dial-up.

Actually I didn't think of that, but I agree. The 'Net will probably have a few divisons like this in the future too. Having dialup now is probably viewed similarly to what still having an early '80s top-loading VCR around 1989 would've been like - perhaps kinda outdated but not unthinkable for alot of people to not have the newest version of whatever tech was pervading the most.

I know lots of people who have dialup. I did until '03 I think, so it's not that big of a deal (even if it could get annoying waiting for things to load - like how song samples would keep stopping with that "Buffering" box, lol).

Actually I didn't think of that, but I agree. The 'Net will probably have a few divisons like this in the future too. Having dialup now is probably viewed similarly to what still having an early '80s top-loading VCR around 1989 would've been like - perhaps kinda outdated but not unthinkable for alot of people to not have the newest version of whatever tech was pervading the most.

I know lots of people who have dialup. I did until '03 I think, so it's not that big of a deal (even if it could get annoying waiting for things to load - like how song samples would keep stopping with that "Buffering" box, lol).



Yeah, I had dial-up until just last June, it took a bit longer for us to have it in our area. That's one reason that everyone doesn't have a high-speed connection yet, and a divide is there, because not everyone can get it. IMO in a few years, say 2010 or so, it will be available almost everywhere, and then it will be considered weird to still have dial-up.

The prices on DSL and high speed packages have come down too. Now its pretty affordable. Its hard to believe that 6 or 7 years ago pretty much everyone was using dial-up.

when the power or cable goes out

About 1997 was when it became a household name, by 2000 it seemed absurd to almost not have it.

98 or 99.

I first had broadband in late 2000, full-time since late 2002.

I'd say the late 90's. I began using the Internet in 1996.

I would agree with the populus here, lol. Around 1998-1999, right before the Y2K scare.

Well I first heard about the internet from a CD-Rom which came with the new Mac my family bought back in 1994.  Needless to say that Mac is long gone now :). The fist time I used the information super highway was in the 6th grade doing a yahoo search ( this was fall of 96 ).  From my P.O.V, it was 2002 when everyone I knew made the internet a part of their daily lives. Now that I think of it, I didn't get my own personal email account until my freshman year of college in 2003.   

Well I first heard about the internet from a CD-Rom which came with the new Mac my family bought back in 1994.  Needless to say that Mac is long gone now :). The fist time I used the information super highway was in the 6th grade doing a yahoo search ( this was fall of 96 ).  From my P.O.V, it was 2002 when everyone I knew made the internet a part of their daily lives. Now that I think of it, I didn't get my own personal email account until my freshman year of college in 2003.   



I didn't really hear about the internet for awhile. I'm sure that I had heard the word before, but I don't recall really knowing what it was until 1996 or so, and I didn't use it for the first time until 1998 I think. I agree that it was probably about 2002 before the net became a necessity. We didn't get it at our house until 2000, and at that time I was one of the only people in my class that had it, by '02 it seemed like everyone did.