It was not before my time, and I do have some insight. This was not their primary purpose. It’s just that the entire sociocultural milieu was completely different. Meeting someone in person at work, at school or at the gym was not demonized; it was expected. Men weren’t seen as default evil and attraction itself was not condemned ceaselessly. Flirting was not equated with sexual assault and everyone did it. Yes, even women.

I simply cannot explain to those who were not there how different things felt in the 1990s and early 2000s as compared to now. It was a world completely antithetical to ours now, a world that younger Millennials and Gen Z insist could not have existed, that it was not possible. But it was possible and it did exist; I was there and I remember.