About the web of the 90s:

Many people had personal web sites, usually published on GeoCities, where exploring the web was a fun adventure that was not fuelled by algorithms.

The Web 1.0 died because search engines prioritzed other contents. In some ways it is good because we get far more accurate search results. On the other hand, it's all about the money and tracking.

How to turn it positive?

Use social media sparsely: quit Facebook, Instagram and others. Look forward for decentralised alternatives like Mastodon. Break the dopamine addiction and turn off all notifications from social media. Familiarize yourself with POSSE and make your site the single source of truth for all your content online.

Discovering Web 1.0 through neocities: a modern implementation of GeoCities.
There are also other website aggregators such as personalsit.es.

Look for a blogroll on personal websites you come across. If you own a website, add one!