How can you tell someone hasn’t been born before 2000? They refer to the 1980s as this magical time when people had the most basic computers that only did text. 😛

Fun fact: Computers that did handle pictures were already around in the early 80s.

Fun fact: Most people did not even have computers, much less internet access until the early 2000s.

Fun fact: Handling of pictures and computer graphics, while it improved over time, did not change fundamentally until the early 2000s

Text based communication on the internet was the norm until the second half of the 2000s, because of limited bandwidth. Facebook was the first social media / internet communication platform that made pictures part of deal for the great unwashed masses. Before that, almost everything was text based. See: IRC, Mailinglists, Web-forums, Blogs.

Side note: the actual first large social media platform that used pictures was 4chan. But that was definitely not for the great unwashed masses. Heck, whippersnappers today would not believe the lawlessness and chaos of 4chan of those early days.

And no, I don’t think that allowing pictures or making those “memes” a central part of interaction makes interactions worthwhile. You don’t have to think for posting a funny picture. You don’t have to understand what someone wrote to post an appropriate response. Heck, most of these picture platforms are not even made to be able to post a response, much less an appropriate one.

And, in my not so humble opinion, the only reason to have pictures on a social media site is to post pictures of cats. Any other use is a waste of bandwidth.