I had forgotten what the internet used to be like 20 or more years ago.
But it's just occurred to me that a couple of hours ago I asked a bunch of random strangers a fairly random question (about repairing a broken watch) and quickly got back multiple helpful and informative replies.
This is what the net used to be like, back in the days of usenet and email lists and the early web forums. And most people have probably never experienced it at all, their impression of social media being very different from those of us here on the Fediverse.
PS: It's probably very unfair to call you "random strangers". Even in just the 18 months I've been here I've found and chatted with people I'm happy to call friends, even though I've never met them face-to-face.