Demos were audio-visual presentations that ran in real-time on a computer. They started as a way to show off computer performance, but quickly became an art form, mixing graphics, music and coding mastery into unique compositions.
I've been a Wired magazine subscriber for a few years now and I figured they would be a great source for learning about how the world viewed early personal computing and the internet in its early stages.
In recent years, the buzz around hardware components has shifted to entire system upgrades. Hardware has become so much cheaper that it's just more convenient to get a new box or laptop every 2-3 years.