I can’t imagine growing up with social media. Probably not good for development.
i grew up during the wild internet days
saw one man one jar, two girls one cup, smile HD, happy tree friends, and incredibly graphic gore when i was at the ripe old age of 12
considering the circumstances i think i turned out fine, well, as fine as a person with empathy can be in this hellscape
Yes, but that was still before social media. As weird as it sounds, social media is probably more damaging than the early oughts shock sites
Yeah social media just adds so much undue mental pressure, especially the non-anonymous ones.
People are constantly seeing perfectly filtered and perfectly arranged photos of influencers apparently enjoying the perfect life and then comparing their own reality and feeling inadequate.
The FOMO pressure to be always available and seek validation via DMs, comments and likes.
The bombardment of political slop and seeing the opinions of every single fucker in the world and a few million bots about some mundane shit is bad for your mood.
Sending and receiving Goatse was just a tiny bit of fun in comparison.
You misunderstand. That was when the Internet was good. No amount of scat or gore or violent cartoons will ever hold a candle to the crushing algorithmic power of modern, corporate social media.
Millennials like us didn’t just grow up with the Internet, the Internet grew up with us too. We got to exploit bleeding edge technology to build the Internet we were using. Gen-Z and Gen Alpha are growing up on a mature but enshittified corporate social media landscape designed to exploit them for profit.
I mean, I didn’t have a partner till I was 20, and didn’t have any friends (aside from partners) till I was almost 25.
It is super discouraging, after a lot of effort and crying, I finally have a pretty satisfying social life. It’s not impossible.
I pretty much re-invented myself around 20 and became a much better person for it and have had a pretty great life for the past fifteen years or so.
Ironically I had a lot of friends growing up but almost all of them turned into garbage monsters and I actually chose to be friend-free outside of my significant other not long after 20 and I really don’t miss the friend experience. I do have a lot of casual acquaintances and my wife tells me I’m great in social situations but I just don’t feel the need any more to expend energy on friends when I have my family and hobbies.
I pretty much re-invented myself around 20
Same. I was an absolutely horrible person. Was a total failure headed for jail. Finally realized it one day when my ex girlfriend sprayed me with mace. Was that day, face puffy and swollen, that I realized I had become bad guy that people live in fear of. I completely reinvented myself. Lost all of my friends, girlfriend, apartment, basically everything. Joined the military with $200 in my bank account and no debts unpaid. 10 years later and I have a successful career, good friends, wife, and expecting my first child in two months from now.
