Recently? Like, twenty years ago?
I did use the word “relatively” because although it was approximately 20 years ago that “everybody” began using the internet, it really has been around in one form or another since something like the 60s, maybe even the 50s (I don’t recall). People on this thread have rightly pointed out it was university professors who wanted to share data and then the military with DARPA (which I wrongly placed in reverse order) who developed the earliest forms of the ‘net.