heres my thoughts.
The timer was used many years ago. mainly because most people used dialup back then. now some things to know about dialup is that it was very slow and undependable.
but here we focus on it being slow.
most people would usually go online just to chat. because it was real time and they didnt have to wait an hour before a webpage loaded. now the reason for the timer i believe was useful because most dialup services would only allow you to spend a certain amount of time online per day or per month. so it was a good way to keep track of how much time you have used up.
now the reason it would be unnecessary in the present day is that everyone is using broadband (cable or DSL) in which case its a matter of bandwidth and not an amount of time you spend online.
*people at times also had to dialup long distance so the timer was a good idea
****Just my theory****
