Since the mid-1990s, when large numbers of people all over the world began going "online" to explore the Internet (see entry under 1990s—The Way We Lived in volume 5), millions of them have been chatting with each other in the many chat rooms that have emerged in cyberspace. Chat rooms can be described as the contemporary equivalent of the old "party line," the early telephone exchanges in which several customers shared the same number and thus could eavesdrop on one another's conversations. Today, anyone with modem access and a password can enter into a conversation. Choices include any number.....
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