True, but for me, the techno-optimism started with Google. I was a young kid back then, but the idea to catalog all of the world's information under a search engine (that worked) sounded wild to me at the time.
But for me, the world started with my youth. I was a young kid back then...
Seriously, it was probably Usenet that kept me engaged. The web was exciting to browse but the conversation was on Usenet.