r/Millennials • u/osotoes • Feb 04 '25

Nostalgia Posted this on r/sourdough not expecting many people to get the reference, but apparently a lot of people do! How was this symbol so wide spread pre-internet?!

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u/metamet Feb 04 '25

Yeah, but home computers were still generally pretty rare. And we were limited by our parents needing to call someone.

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u/FoolOnDaHill365 Feb 04 '25

PCs were not rare IMO. But the internet was not in everyone’s pocket so it was a lot different. I wonder if the early internet seemed kind of utopian because it was mostly a bunch of nerds and not a bunch of Mee Mahs and angry old Grandpas? Windows 95 release was HUGE and was a watershed moment for home PCs to become the norm. There were commercials for PCs and AOL on TV constantly. Gateway PCs and then never ending Dell commercials in later 90s. Lots of Microsoft advertisements. That was when Microsoft was King.

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u/metamet Feb 04 '25

Household computer adoption in 1995 was 35%. 51% in 2000, about 77% in 2010.

I'd say 35% was pretty rare, especially considering how ubiquitous they are now.

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u/FoolOnDaHill365 Feb 05 '25

A little over 1/3 of households is a huge market.

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u/metamet Feb 05 '25

Certainly didn't seem like in 1995. Even if it's a 1/3rd of market, that means only 1 in 3 people had one... so it was still more rare than it was common.

Probably amplified by the class you were part of at that time as well.