The WeLL, BIX, and BBSes predated the web, and my sub-$200 computer was doing a fine job of it. Newsgroups were a thing.

I love all the tech advances, but just because the old tech wasn't as widely disbursed doesn't mean people weren't doing things that happen today.

I remember a old Byte magazine on conferencing and it had a lot of stuff that is basically todays messaging networks.