I know what you mean Deucemoi, I had dial up for many years before I decided to pay the extra money and go with broadband cable internet. I still have dial up on my old computer in the basement that I only use in emergencies when my cable goes out for several hours, luckily that rarely happens. When I do use it, I get reminded of what I put up with for all those years, having to leave the room and do something else just to wait for a page or a photo to load.
Videos, I gave up on them, it took so long for the buffering and loading of even the shortest video, that many times I was thrown off line or lost my connection. I never was able to enjoy photos or videos like I do now. My older sister pushed me to get the faster connection, she said that I had my computer for so long, when was I going to enjoy it, after I'm dead? Made me think. She was annoyed because she would send me short videos of her grandkids and I couldn't even load them to watch.
I never regret leaving dial up, it's worth paying extra and cutting back in other areas of spending if need be. I guess a DSL service might be cheaper than cable, not sure, but it would be faster than dial up for sure. As time goes on, so many websites have more graphics and features that just are not going to be compatible with an extremely slow dial up connection.