In 1995/96, getting online took time. Extreme patience. We were on dial-up back then, and it oftentimes took hours to get a connection. You had to *really* want it, and, once online, you didn’t screw around. Because you might lose connection at any moment, you a) spent time on what mattered and b) were purposeful, precise (and, typically, polite) in communication.
I remember many a time during undergrad in Illinois my friends and I danced in a close buddy’s living room to Earth, Wind & Fire (oh, Maurice), James Brown, The O’Jays, Tribe, De La, Nas, et al., before periodically walking back to his bedroom, where existed one of the few personal computers in our sphere, to see if we were online yet.
Rarely we were online … yet. And, unsurprisingly, by the time we achieved success — several beers and joints later — we were far from united on queries, itself a term not yet in the general lexicon.
By 1999/00, I was living in Little Rock. At this point, many people I knew had personal computers. Internet access was much more consistent, though still dial-up. Message boards, the pre-cursor to modern social media, were popular. Tight, proper and correct messaging was necessary.
Why? 1) You had one chance; you never knew when you might lose connection, or how long it would take to get back online, so editing/changing your mind wasn’t a viable option, 2) Few alternative options/media were available and 3) Because millennials were/are, typically, pretty nice, easygoing folk.
Things have changed a lot.
I am listening to Power 92 Jams, fly station in Little Rock.