There really wasn't the online echo chamber before 2000. Prior to that, they were more likely to interact with more normal people around them.
The dates are subject to some slippage, but that's the way I see it. Pre-"stark raving batsh|t cr@Zeeness", the most sophisticated electronics in small retail stores and the like were fax machines and a TV set in the back room.
Personal communication with the whole world was pretty much limited to dial-up Bulletin Boards at 300-1200 baud, and chances were only one or two people at a time could participate in the board.
{I remember exerting great effort to set up my TI-99 4a* so I could type out stuff, store it on a 5-1/4" floppy (instead of cassette tape storage) and dump it to a bulletin board in one fell swoop, "when I got in." Apple's donation of the 2e to thousands of schools all over the country had a large influence in the proliferation of computer savvy. I also remember several sitcom episodes of the time where the main premise was "getting a computer," or dealing with the home computer's quirks.}
The widening of those channels and the proliferation of individual computer setups resulted, in my opinion, of "too much of a good thing,"
especially since anonymity was possible. It wasn't like sitting around the wood stove in the general store and espousing some stupidity, or voicing that stupidity in a town meeting.
So. Yes. But without any sharp cutofff with respect to actual years.
Terry, 230RN
* The "4a" indicated that the Texas Instruments machine could handle upper
and lower case text. Whoopie !
