Ten years earlier, i.e. mid-1980s. I would have been a young adult when the Internet was starting to be awesome, instead I was a preteen or early teen.
You'd probably want 20 years earlier, i.e. mid-1970s. Mid-1990s were when the Internet was starting to be awesome. Broadband was just coming out, but the first web browser was already 5 years old in 1995.
I was born in 1975, and my youth was pretty awesome. I was also born in the Netherlands, so booze (and drugs, but I never did that) were available at a young age. Also, affordable concerts and festivals and great music scenes.