From eye candy to user experience

The internet was created in the 1960s, and it spread gradually from government and academia, to commercial and personal use. Important milestones include the emergence of secure online payments via encrypted browsers, Amazon's shopping cart, advances in warehousing and shipping logistics involved in the fulfillment of online orders, media streaming, the emergence of social networks, and a transition from slow dial-up to fast high-speed connections, which radically improved the experience of being online. In developed countries, a reliable and persistent internet connection has tremendous importance. It is comparable to utilities and is needed almost like water and electricity. We will expand this point later. 

Robust but relatively small, virtual communities formed in the 1980s through the early 1990s were propelled by the availability of personal computers and dialup connections to the network. The main form of interaction occurred on bulletin board forums...