Just for a little perspective here: my father worked for Bell Labs as a sysadmin, so we had much more computer exposure and internet access than your average person, and it wasn't until I believe 1992 that we actually got an internet connection at home as opposed to using a terminal with a modem to connect to the labs.  Things moved fairly quickly around this time, and there was a huge difference in internet penetration in say 1996 vs. 1992 amongst the general populace.  In 1992 you probably would have gotten blank stares asking the average person on the street about the internet, and in 1996 in the next town over there was an internet cafe.  Even then, this was the east coast of the US - I'm sure the interior of the country with its much more vast physical distances was a few steps behind.

-Henry