The idea that the internet 'wasn't really used' until after 2005

I'm sorry, but this just isn't true at all. In my opinion, this is claim only exists due to 1990-1996 borns' obsession with claiming pre-internet/cellphone prestige.

Napster and other file sharing was very popular among teens in 1999 onward. Message boards were too. Myspace became popular in late 2004. Online dating was already pretty popular by the early 2000s. And let's be real, so was porn. Wikipedia. Ebay. AOL Instant Messenger. Band websites. Video game strategy guides. Online polls. I was born in 1987 and basically everyone remotely near my age range was doing all or most of this stuff in the early 00s.

It may be true that the internet started to change a lot sometime around the late 00s. But pretending that it 'wasn't really used' before then is bullshit. It was mostly just slower, low-quality versions of the same exact shit. Dial-up was a pain in the ass, but the idea that it made the internet unusable just isn't true. It was just slower. Admittedly, quite a bit slower, but there was still decent experience to be had.

And finally, people like to promote polling data that shows things like "only 49% of Americans had internet access in 2001". My guess is that this is including everyone, from old people in nursing homes, to blind people, to people on Native American reservations etc. I bet if you focused on people aged 10-19 in 2002, a clear majority had the internet. And since defining generations is mainly focused around the youth age cohort, that would be the only relevant data.