This kind of unsubtle typography escalates until we see web pages that are full of nothing more than separators. There have been no shortage of attempts, though, to replace an old habit with a new one. There are millions of horizontal rules on the Web, doing nothing but taking up space and breaking the natural flow of pages. That Interfere Backgrounds on the Web have reached epidemic proportions. Wallpaper is nice, but reading the handwriting on the wall can cause damage to the retina.
Background do more damage to web pages than almost anything else.
Thoughtless designers get carried away, the pixels fly, and surfers get hurt. A good rule is that most pages in a site should be under 30K, a few can be 30 - 50K, and perhaps one or two can weigh in all 70K. Pages larger than that should either belong to 800 pound gorillas or be put on a diet. If you want to force your visitors to go out to lunch while your page loads, fill it full of 8 bit dithered GIFS in the foreground, and don't forget an enormous high quality JPEG in the background. Although they make images smaller, they also make images look like they've been nibbled by leaf-cutting ants. Strive to eliminate jaggy lines or pixilated areas of images that should be smooth.