As a septuagenarian, my father’s story was typical of long-time AOL dial-up subscribers. His subscription was a security blanket. He was sure he didn’t need the dial-up component, but he didn’t want to risk losing access to his stock portfolio, investor forums, and email. His setup worked, and he could afford to keep paying the subscription he had dutifully paid for over a decade.
With my help, we were able to migrate everything he used on AOL to the ad-supported and open internet that…