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Technology in the Late 1990s

Technology in the late 1990s covered a United States transition in which home computers, dial-up internet, mobile telephones, digital media, and online communication expanded quickly without becoming universal. Households combined new digital tools with landline telephones, answering machines, pagers, printed reference material, broadcast media, VHS, CDs, and in-person communication.

Household Adoption and the Digital Divide

National household computer ownership rose from 24.1 percent in 1994 to 36.6 percent in 1997 and 42.1 percent in December 1998. Home internet access rose from 18.6 percent in 1997 to 26.2 percent in December 1998. The 51.0 percent computer-ownership and 41.5 percent home-internet figures belong to August 2000 and fall outside this article’s period.

Access differed sharply by income, education, race and ethnicity, household structure, and geography. NTIA’s December 1998 data found particularly large gaps between high-income urban households and low-income rural households. A computer at school, work, or a library could provide access outside the home, but time limits, transportation, hours, privacy, and available assistance affected whether that access met a person’s needs.

The national measures described household access, not the number of people who used a device or the quality of their connection. One shared desktop could serve several family members, and a household counted as connected even when dial-up service was slow, unreliable, or available only at limited times.

Home Computers and Dial-Up Internet

Desktop computers remained more common in homes than laptops. A typical setup used a tower, CRT monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers, and a dial-up modem. The computer often occupied a fixed desk in a bedroom, den, office, or shared family area. Placement affected privacy: a bedroom computer allowed more private use than a screen in a common room, while a shared machine required negotiation over time and supervision.

Windows 95 and Windows 98 were major consumer operating systems during the period. Macintosh computers held a smaller share of the home market, and Apple’s all-in-one iMac G3 arrived in 1998. Software and peripheral compatibility varied by system, version, and hardware.

Dial-up internet used the telephone network. Unless a household maintained a separate line, an internet session occupied the same line needed for voice calls. Modems advertised speeds such as 14.4, 28.8, 33.6, and nominal 56 kbit/s, although actual speed depended on the equipment, telephone line, provider, and connection. Images and software downloads could take substantial time, and a dropped call ended the session. Cable and DSL service began to provide faster, always-on connections in some markets near the end of the decade but remained far less common than dial-up.

Email, web browsing, online services, chat rooms, forums, and instant messaging required a deliberate connection rather than the continuous background access associated with later smartphones. Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer competed as major browsers. America Online combined internet access with email, chat, news, entertainment, and other material inside its consumer service.

AIM and Online Social Communication

AOL Instant Messenger launched in 1997. AIM used screen names, buddy lists, presence indicators, direct messages, chat rooms, and away messages. It allowed real-time private or small-group conversation while remaining tied to the household’s computer access, telephone line, and rules.

Screen names could obscure a legal name while still being recognizable within a friend group. Buddy-list sign-on and sign-off sounds signaled availability. Away messages and profiles carried jokes, short updates, quotations, or indirect messages, but individual use varied.

Online anonymity and text communication created both access and risk. Text could make conversation easier for people who could not use a voice telephone comfortably, while identity claims, harassment, privacy breaches, and conversations with strangers remained concerns. Family supervision, shared screens, blocked users, and limits on chat-room access were common responses in some households rather than universal rules.

Telephones, Pagers, and Mobile Service

Landline telephones remained central to household communication. Calling a teenager often meant reaching a household first, speaking to whoever answered, leaving a message on an answering machine, or waiting for the person to return. Cordless handsets increased mobility within the home but remained connected to the household line.

Pagers provided short alerts or callback numbers without full mobile voice service. Mobile-telephone adoption also grew rapidly. The Federal Communications Commission reported approximately 86 million mobile subscriptions at the end of 1999, a nationwide penetration rate of roughly 32 percent. These were subscription measures rather than proof that 32 percent of individual Americans personally owned a handset.

Mobile phones were used primarily for voice calls. Plan prices, included minutes, roaming, handset cost, and message charges varied by carrier and contract. SMS existed during the period but was not yet the default form of United States adolescent communication, and no single per-message price applied across carriers and years.

Digital Media, Commerce, and Y2K

VHS remained central to home video while DVD entered the United States market in 1997 and expanded gradually. CDs remained a principal music format. Portable MP3 players appeared by the end of the decade; the Rio PMP300 was an early consumer model in 1998 rather than the first digital audio player of every kind. Napster launched in 1999 and accelerated public conflict over file sharing and recorded-music rights.

Online retail and employment sites expanded without replacing physical stores, mail order, newspaper classifieds, or telephone transactions. Monster’s online employment history predated 1999, while Amazon and eBay helped normalize consumer transactions on the web. Credit-card security, shipping, computer access, and familiarity affected participation.

The Year 2000 problem arose because many older systems stored years with two digits. Governments, businesses, utilities, hospitals, financial institutions, and other organizations spent years finding, repairing, testing, and planning around affected systems. Federal agencies paired remediation with contingency planning through 1999. The limited disruption at the date change reflected substantial preparation as well as variation in which systems were vulnerable.

Disability Access

Late-1990s digital access was uneven rather than wholly new. Disabled people already used computers, electronic communication, TTYs, screen readers, magnification, alternative keyboards, switches, speech output, and other assistive technologies. Text-based email and chat could bypass some voice-telephone barriers, but new graphical interfaces and rapidly changing web pages also created compatibility failures.

Screen-reader access depended on the operating system, application, graphics handling, document structure, and browser. A computer’s presence did not establish that its software, website, or peripheral was usable by a blind, low-vision, motor-disabled, DeafBlind, cognitively disabled, or learning-disabled person. Assistive technology cost, training, configuration, repair, and institutional willingness shaped participation.

Section 255 of the Communications Act took effect in 1996 and required covered telecommunications products and services to be accessible when readily achievable. The U.S. Access Board published its original telecommunications-equipment guidelines in February 1998.

The World Wide Web Consortium launched the Web Accessibility Initiative in 1997 and issued Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 in May 1999. Congress amended Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act in August 1998 to require accessible federal electronic and information technology; the Access Board’s original technical standards followed in December 2000. Neither law made every consumer product or website accessible during 1995–1999.

Pasadena Household and AIM Canon

The Matsuda household had computers by 1995 and added home internet as the decade progressed. Its household technology included multiple telephone lines, answering machines, cordless phones, television and VCR equipment, a CD player, and a stereo system. Ellen Matsuda and Greg Matsuda used pagers and later mobile phones. Cody Matsuda used the family computer and internet but did not have his own mobile phone during the 1995 crisis, when he was sixteen. Typing and AAC were incorporated into his home education after he became nonspeaking.

Tommy Hayes worked for HP and Dell before founding Hayes Technologies in 1995. He used computers at home and work as well as internet access, email, and a mobile phone. His son, Evan Hayes, had access to a home computer for schoolwork and used AIM as EvanH_98.

Jeremy Wallace had a desktop computer in his bedroom and used JWallace17. Clarissa Smalls used her family’s shared computer under parental supervision as ClarissaS_98. Their wider 1998 circle included Cassidy Harris as xXCassidyXx, Morgan as MorganM98, Connor Martinez as ConnorB, and Tracy as TracyLee. Jeremy’s bedroom setup allowed more private access, while Clarissa’s use depended on the shared computer and her parents’ rules.

Five 1998 AIM sequences shaped the Pasadena group’s relationships. Clarissa signed on looking for Jeremy, received Michelle’s account of Sarah’s ableist remarks, and blocked Sarah. Clarissa later spoke with Jeremy online after one of his seizures. Evan and Jeremy discussed Evan’s work and financial pressure later that evening. Clarissa tried to steer Jeremy through the all-night spiral that followed. During Pattie Matsuda’s emergency delivery, Jeremy opened a private AIM room to update Cassidy, Morgan, Connor, and Tracy.

Sources and Documentation

Cultural Context Technology 1990s