MSN wasn't social media, there were no likes and as I remember, most chats were 1on1. You didn't post publicly, there was no algorithmic feed etc. It was just chatting, basically texting. And actually yeah, texting was already a thing on dumb phones, remember all the abbreviations, emoticons, etc. Teens were glued to that too, especially girls, as well as guys texting with girls. But that's absolutely different from the fomo and "keeping up" and public likes and algorithms thing today. I think as millennial we don't really appreciate how deeply ingrained it is, compared to back then.