Quote Originally Posted by Mister Adequate View Post
how has the Internet affected you, personally? Has it had much of an effect, or has it been fairly unimportant?
4chan, Newgrounds, SomethingAwful, YTMND, and GameFAQs LUE probably had a bigger effect on my upbringing than anyone I had ever met in real life outside of tragic events. I changed drastically in just a few months, being introduced to all these new ideas and crazy personalities immediately after a life without internet. Mostly 4chan. It was an intense and fascinating time for me. The internet was also my introduction to many other concepts that had a big impact and my experiences with them are held very dear to me. The internet introduced me to anime and manga, and otaku culture. The internet introduced me to flash animation, and the entire subculture resulting from it. It allowed me to see other parts of the world, and how different things were. It expanded my view of the world in every way possible.

The internet allowed me to study. I had a vast wealth of information at my fingertips. It allowed to delve into philosophy, epistemology, astronomy (which at the time I thought was the same as cosmology), ethics and logic, metaphysical sciences, music theory, architecture, electrical engineering, computer science and programming, carpentry, all sorts of literature, and gave me the opportunity to familiarize myself with other languages and cultures, all of which I made an effort to use to their full advantage in the time I had. I was interested in everything, and wanted to make myself into a human library.

I saw badgers and mushrooms. I saw 3D dancing babies, dancing hamsters, and even a dancing banana. I saw demotivational pictures. I saw animutations and magical puppets. I saw Homestar Runner and Joe Cartoons. I saw a band consisting of people who may or may not be giants. I saw a lot of people failing at things, one of whom had an afro and nunchaku. I saw a man wearing a homemade Tron costume. I saw a fat Chinese kid's face edited over the Mona Lisa. I saw a lot of pictures of a certain Sesame Street character in some incriminating scenes. I saw people speaking with numbers in place of letters. I saw many, MANY people being compared to Hitler.

The internet introduced me to many hobbies I still enjoy to this day. Origami, gigantic LEGO sculptures, model planes, etc. It showed me drawing and painting techniques that I may not have been able to learn for years otherwise, and as a result got to practice them longer. Likewise for martial arts.

Some of the things I saw in my early days on the internet influence who I am to this very day. It showed me absolutely terrible things that happen all over the world, and just how many horrible people there really are in the world. It also taught me how to accept all the good and bad things that happen to myself and others as circumstance, how to help others when their circumstances require it, and how to get past my own circumstances and look to the future.

The internet taught me how2meme and how2satire. It brought me closer together with those who shared similar ideals, similar interests, or similar tastes in humor, regardless of how different we may be otherwise.


The internet taught me I'm special, and also that I'm exactly the same as everyone else.