Would you consider yourself "raised by the internet"?

[Memory]

no, I would not say I was raised by the internet. I didn't start using the internet really until I was like, 13. and, for 2 years, that was very casual internet usage via library computers. but then my school gave me a computer for some reason? and we got internet at home. that was when it really changed things for me, haha. I def spent a lot of time online, and mom was struggling hard as a single parent at points, but... no, not raised by the internet.

[dozzleDsnozzler]

i think the internet shaped a big part of my life but i think tv mostly rotted my mind more

[Swiftpaw]

I'd say yes because I started to use the internet a lot as an unhealthy coping mechanism from undiagnosed ADHD/autism causing social isolation, and it got worse when I started to go through something traumatic.

When I was younger and just using forums around 2009-2013 I think it was fine. They were usually well moderated, and even if I was way too young to be on the internet I got through it unscathed. As a teenager though joining sites like Tumblr or Quotev was bad. They had extremely toxic communities that encouraged unhealthy mindsets and paranoia, and internet discourse such as ace discourse and system discourse that we got sucked into caused a lot of damage that took us years to undo.

We ended up staying in those groups even as a young adult (or I guess younger adult) until we finally left it just a few years ago. These types of communities have been healing for me honestly.

[kero]

Yes, I am 36 and have been online since I was maybe 9? or so. My mother died of cancer very young (38) the year prior and my father was depressed, reclusive, and generally not able to handle raising us kids properly afterwards. I didn’t fit in at school (undiagnosed ADHD and likely autism as well) so the internet was a way to find more info about my interests and read and be myself. I made websites about my interests.

 It shaped my worldview in the sense that I value finding information more than memorizing it, but I already was a child who loved to read the (printed) newspaper and books. If not for the internet access I likely would’ve still been well rounded and able to seek information from books but I would probably be very socially isolated (I felt like I couldn’t be my true self IRL, had “best friends” only by acting like them and not myself).

I started out going to things like the Beanie Baby website, then I used forums and made free pages on ExPage and GeoCities and eventually moved to LiveJournal and DeviantArt and Xanga and MySpace and IRC and self hosting. I even got catfished by some girl who offered webhosting to people and pretended to be British with a boyfriend but who definitely wasn’t. I wasn’t close nor really cared so it was wild to read about it years later.

I’ve met many people from online, I’m friends with several people from LiveJournal, and I had met a lot of kids at my arts high school through LiveJournal before I attended. I even married one that I initially met as another frequent commenter on a blog.

[Ninaiso]

Oh man!! What a good topic!!

I am curious to know if you consider yourself "raised by the internet"

Absolutely YES I was lol
So, a snippet of my story... I apologize if it comes off "trauma dumpy" I swear I'm just telling my story as it is!

I grew up in the rural south, my parents were not great. I was isolated and homeschooled. I understand that because of my mother's trauma why she'd brand everyone a dangerous person and opt to isolate us out in the backwoods, 25 minutes from less than 1000 people towns, but it still was incredibly lonely. I stumbled upon anime on toonami, loved it, and I think a website was also advertised for it or something? Either way I was like "I NEED to talk to someone about this! What was that internet thing? That's what my Grandad's on all the time right?" My grandparents had a pc on good ole dial up internet and so my journey began! It was kind of the main source of socializing for me in my early years!

How do you think it's shaped your world view?

I still struggle with a lot of typical "common sense" things, but I feel like I'm doing well! I genuinely think it did help grow into a more open minded person, as well as help me stay creative and not fall into a lot of societal traps of "you have to act X way" honestly. I love what I love and cringe will always be dead to me!

What places have you hung out in, in the past?

I spent most of my childhood there on chats, art sites, quizilla, forums, fanfiction sites, etc etc

I loved it!! I felt really at home amongst (in my parents words) "the freaks"!

Who have you met?

I met a lot of awesome people, who taught me my situation was... not great. And it honestly helped me make a better life for myself! I was super lucky that most of my interactions were kind lol


And that's it! I just want to say this is a great topic and I've deeply loved reading everyone's stories!! It's been amazing to get to know you like this and I wish the absolute best for all of you!!

[lamia]

How do you think it's shaped your world view? What places have you hung out in, in the past? Who have you met? Tell me your story! I'd love to hear it. 

I don't think of myself as "raised by the internet," but I have always been glued to devices. I was a shy nerd, undiagnosed autism, etc. so I had a hard time having a social life even when the opportunities were there. As a young kid the internet was mainly for looking up game guides, but from there I started making Youtube videos, and so on, until I was constantly on one family member or another's borrowed computer.

Around 2008 I found out about RPG Maker. Not long after that, I got my own laptop for the first time.

As a teen I spent a lot of time on the PK Bloggin' forums, which was a tiny place I found through ads on Brawl in the Family. The huge BitF forum was a bit intimidating to me, but PK Bloggin' really made me feel accepted.

I was younger than most of the people there and it was nice to have role models that were into nerd stuff like me. I didn't know many young adults in my offline life, so I had no idea what to expect about my future. The Internet offered me glimpses of what adult life might look like for me.

Online communities introduced me to the idea of making art online as a career option, at a time when everyone was asking me questions about colleges and jobs that I didn't have answers for. Even though I'm not making a living doing it, it's still pretty important for me. At the time, I would've been using deviantart and the bird site, and reading webcomics my friends recommended.

I might not have questioned my gender without seeing trans people on social media, so that was huge too.

I've got lots of online friends, but still not many that I would consider that close, I guess? I did get to meet up with some IRL, once. It was at an anime con... I was awkward, but it was a good time.

[PainterFight]

Hmmmph, probably! I was a mobile phone junkie when I was 5, and I had little to no restrictions on what I would see on the screen. Googling about various things, visiting websites, and (arguably) interacting on social media opened the gates of me being interested at the World Wide Web! I remember opening Amino on my mom's phone, and it was like my introduction to fan communities and parcitipating with them were fun.

But nowadays, even if I'm still a part of fandom culture and still seeking fun in the 'net, I realized that at times, I need to dissonate myself from the virtual worlds I've been getting used to. It doesn't mean that the internet raised me since I was a kid, but atleast I'm having fun!

[starbreaker]

I definitely wasn't raised by the Internet. I didn't get my first computer, let alone get online for the first time, until I was 18 in the mid-1990s.

[manrevisited]

I don't know about "raised" by the internet. I definitely still had an outdoor social life that my parents were taking me to and involved in, but I'd say heavily tutored by the internet. Primarily friends with internet denizens. I first got unrestricted internet access in the mid-2000s Netscape days, at which point I quickly became the one in the house that knew the most about computers, how to navigate the internet, and how to fix things when they broke.

I actually think being exposed to weird content and bad/fringe ideas in a place where I could always hit the back button to get out of it was pretty good for me. I was eased into the internet through Neopets and other actively-moderated kid-friendly sites, then got to choose my own adventure on places like deviantart, quizilla, roleplay forums, and eventually tumblr where things are usually at least a little bit signposted or quarantined. I don't feel scarred for life because I saw some weird porn when I clicked somewhere I knew that was a possibility--it's mostly weakened my disgust response to things that are weird but not morally objectionable, which I think has generally been good for my philosophy and relationships.

I am glad my parents didn't let me make a social media account until high school, by which point I was already deeply immersed in the world of making my own proboards forums and pbwikis, conversing over email, and being a little fandom nerd. I thought I was too cool for posting about the mundanities of my life, so there's not that much of an online record of younger me tied to my legal name thank god. Generally it was a better place to be my particular flavor of weird than in the elementary/middle school classroom, and then it became a place where I could be quietly judgmental of all the queer people online instead of my irl queer friends who I really had the power to hurt while I sorted some internal stuff out.

So... I feel like I sorta lucked into the ideal early internet experience, as these things go. But I also feel like most of my similar-age friends (including irl) feel similarly? Maybe mostly since we've all found each other by virtue of ending up as nerdy little hermits who spend a lot of time online but not on social media.

[zanarkand]

And also, if you don't get along with people at school, the internet is many times the easiest or only way to find likeminded people and find support. If neither your school nor your family is supportive, the internet is the only outlet.

this was 100% my experience. i was bullied really badly from middle school through high school and being able to escape into fandom pages and the neopets forum helped me survive. i had closer online friends than i did irl and i kinda learned how to socialize on there and learned a lot about people who lived all over the world which i think is pretty cool! spending time online kept me from feeling completely isolated, and then of course i wouldn't have learned about anything LGBTQ+ without it.

[Bart of the Clown Lands]

I dont consider myself being "raised by the internet", its more like "was taken for the weekend by it". I had pretty strict parents and could only use computer for 1-1.5 hour, so i didnt saw much when i was young. Then i got my own laptop in high school and became terminally online. Same story to me, i was bullied and alone so yeah i turned to online world. Very much regret it.
Mostly i was active on roleplay forums, DeviantArt, online games like Aion and Perfect World, occasionally some chatrooms. Read a lot of comics. Also had misfortunate to take a wrong turn towards some green imageboard but thankfully i escaped.
Internet didnt really shape my worldview that much, since i used it primarly for entertainment but probably it made me a bit more cautious of others  

[BlazingCobaltX]

I find it hard to say. Until secondary school I was mostly playing online games and engaging with the internet itself instead of other people. Only once I went on forums I actually got involved in internet culture and socialising with people. I have mad respect for the twenty-year-olds that were able to tolerate thirteen-year-old me screeching in whatever thread, because I now know how grating that can be. On Tumblr I got to learn about social justice and quickly adapted to it, which coincided with me opening up about my sexuality.

So raised, not really. More like joining my reluctant cousins on a road trip that changed my scope of the world.

[urgellx]

I would define myself as being raised by the Internet. I've grown up spending
hours upon hours on it, on different games, lurking different communities,
hanging out on TeamSpeak, Discord or even the horrible Skype back in 2015 to
2019. The Internet has probably shaped the better part of my personality, which
means that i'm insufferable to those who really know me. I can live without
it but i don't think i'll take a break any time soon, it's just so much fun !
Even in terms of the culture that I have, it's very much programmed by what i
saw on the 'net at the time, what philosophers i read, what music do i listen
to, etc. It's just such a great thing that i never really had anything more
than a surface-level relationship with anyone i considered a friend since i
discovered it, it's like a black hole of thoughts.

Just like everyone probably already knows, if you're curious, the Internet is a
goldmine.

-----

Have a good day !
- U.

[cuplike]

yes AND no its complicated, but mostly yes

[alexela64]

Yes and no, but mostly no. Long post incoming.
 I think a key difference between my internet experiences while younger and others' is that due to a multitude of mental health reasons, I was incredibly antisocial, even in online spaces. A lot of my online experiences were more gaming/content curation/personal use focused.
For example, my brother and I got iPad Minis, but we had a strict limit on how much time we were allowed on them for. I have a lot of fond memories of my brother and I playing mobile Terraria, back when the mobile version didn't even have the final update. But mostly, I used this iPad to post on apps like Amino and Instagram about things I liked. I liked to have accounts that were like "shrines" for my favorite things (like Pyrrha Nikos from RWBY... lol.) I never roleplayed on Amino like so many people talk about -- usually I would post my own art or creations. I was big into aesthetics. As I got older, I would continue to use the internet as a tool to interact with fandom type stuff, and to post, but content consumption wasn't really my thing. I never really formed any /friendships/ or meaningful relationships with people online that lasted, until around high school. But by that time I was used to interacting with people.
I'm used to assuming a sort of different identity when I'm online. So despite how online I was as a kid, it never majorly affected the way i perceived life. That also just might be the autism tho lol. Anyways I've been talking too long