To be fair, this was a commonly expressed opinion when the internet was in its infancy.

Paul Krugman (1998)

• "The growth of the Internet will slow drastically, as the flaw in 'Metcalfe's law'—which states that the number of potential connections in a network is proportional to the square of the number of participants—becomes apparent: most people have nothing to say to each other! By 2005 or so, it will become clear that the Internet's impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machine's."

Clifford Stoll (1995)

• "We'll soon buy books and newspapers straight over the Internet. Uh, sure."

• "The truth is no online database will replace your daily newspaper, no CD-ROM can take the place of a competent teacher and no computer network will change the way government works."

• "Lacking editors, reviewers or critics, the Internet has become a wasteland of unfiltered data."

There's a massive tendency amongst even intelligent people to completely dismiss the potential of new technology based on that technology's current observed capability.