It wasn’t dominant but it was there. It was where I was. Not just for a sub period.
It’s not so important what was dominant as that things that weren’t dominant had so much more of a place online. Not now in the adtech monoculture.
Now I am less online, in that way. I don’t care for what became almost the only options.
I’ll take the Wild West and scam prone “web3” over any amount of the “modern web”.
I think you just described one of the "sub periods" covered in the article. That phase happened but it wasn't dominant for the whole 15 year era.