I still remember the first time I heard _modem sounds_ in a radio ad spot. I about fell out of my chair. Why would someone advertise that? Only like 0.0001% of the listenership would know what that sound means! Oh wait.... are there more people who'd recognize that now? Hmm, I guess that might be the case. Whoah. Some advertiser, whose job is to know these things, believes a commercially significant fraction of listeners would know that. WHOAH.
What is happening???
The idea that modems and computers were going mainstream, was a paradigm shift I think other folks must've experienced but we don't seem to talk much about. Anyone under about age 35 I figure has always known the internet as a popular thing, and I don't know if it's possible to convey how huge a transformation that was for us older folks who lived through it. Imagine a talkshow guest just casually mentioning their fursona like it's no big deal and the host just responds by talking about theirs like of course this is something everyone does. That's the level of shock and confusion.
But it's bigger than that. This wasn't just a hobby, I mean it was a hobby, but it's one that everyone involved understood would change the world if it went mainstream. Of course that would never happen...