I didn't get email or internet until I got to college - also in 97. My family didn't get email or internet until a year later, when my brother, who is a year young, went to college and did not have high speed internet in his dorm. They got an AOL account so he could access the Internet.
I did get my first cell phone in 98 or 99. At the time, prices were coming down, and it was cheaper to call home on the cell at 10c per min. as opposed to the 15c per minute on the college long distance phone plan. Plus, I was going to college out of state and moving each year and spending my summers working in NYC, so it was helpful to have one phone number regardless of what state or address I was at.