I disagree in part. It was commoditised, ubiquitous in nature, and always-on but before we had internet, we had encylopedias, and the like. I grew up with "the whole earth catalog" in one toilet, and a stash of "the wizard of id" in the other.

bite sized information and cartoons were a constant in my life since before time. the sixties were amazing: we had catalogs.

(we also had as toilet fodder both a sears current catalog, and a reprint of a turn of the century sears catalog that Dover books put out)