God no.
The utility of systems like email was very quickly apparent, and while the 90s web was much more about publishing structured information than any sort of interaction, again it was pretty immediately recognised as a powerful, useful thing.
I don’t recall any negativity to “the internet”, but a lot for the dot com hype cycle, which is what I think cryptocurrency most closely resembles, but it has dragged on for years
- https://www.newstatesman.com/science-tech/2016/08/25-years-h...
"The Internet, bah. Hype alert"
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlJku_CSyNg
"What is the Internet, Anyway?"
I recall some videos/articles dissing internet as a passing fad at that time - does anyone who remember what it was like then think the crypto industry going through something similar?