If you've yet to get online, you'll be even sadder to hear that, according to Dr. Jakob Nielsen, you're almost definitely doomed. Nielsen is a usability expert, which means he spends a lot of time looking at browser-breaking page designs, inept site organization, and stupid advertiser tricks.
Any new technology is just more rope to hang itself with.
Much of the problem lies with software design. A Web site, however, doesn't compel its users to stay. The goal of the usability expert is to design a site to be as easy to use as a toaster. According to Nielsen, it's a given that any Web site's first iteration will be bad, and only user feedback will improve it. But years of buying software have made us passive.