It was kinda hip the first several years, back in the 90s. I remember that epic Neal Stephenson piece about transatlantic cables: https://www.wired.com/1996/12/ffglass/
I thought they were pretty useful until roughly the mid-'90s. They seemed to go into full hype mode at that point, IIRC... I cancelled my sub around that time.
> I thought they were pretty useful until roughly the mid-'90s
Wired was founded in the mid-1990s. (First issue was March/April '93).
Yup. They were only interesting to me for 2-3 years. :-)