In the long long ago before social media and amongst a certain type of people, the answer to “where are you from?” would be something like “the internet”, and the connotations were positive.

It meant that you were from a small shitty place that nobody ever heard of, but you had transcended those humble origins to become a being of pure information, sharing thoughts, philosophy and maybe code with other similar beings, and that physical location was irrelevant and really the whole idea of it was quite vulgar.

I suppose we are still sharing thoughts now, but times change, and the real struggle is transcending the vulgarity of the internet and going back to meatspace.

Hmm. These days if you don’t like discussing where you’re from, there’s no equivalent answer that immediately reveals interests, while pushing back on the presumption of getting a real answer. Being from “the library” is maybe closest in spirit in terms of being infotropic and on an autodidactic mission, but urban people will think you are homeless, and rural people will think you are a weird librarian.

I'm from the Internet :-)

I think the problem is that there is a huge number of people now whose only contact with the Internet has been social media. For them, that is where the Internet begins and where it ends. They'll use Reddit and not call it a "website" but an "app," because they have "installed" Reddit on their smartphones.

It doesn't help that most online forums have become subreddits, and that Google will show Reddit results over random forums. It makes sense because, understandably, Reddit can be assumed to be always safe, while a random forum might not be, but in the long run it it just gives Reddit an unfair advantage over smaller forums that could just as safe if not better than their subreddit equivalent, killing those forums in the process.

Now things are getting even worse as subreddits become Discord channels. That's why I root for things like Neocities and Tumblr to succeed.

I’m also from the Internet :)

I miss that cozy weird familiar and insane place.

OTOH, 20 years ago my only concern was school and I had the energy to pull all-nighters. Now I have to pay my bills.

in the modern age of Forums not being as popular, Discord (rip IRC) communities seemingly occupy this space now - they can be quite cozy, and give off a lot of the old vibes

Not even close. Discords owns your data and once the so-called-Discord-groupchat (server my ass, is NOT a server) closes down, you are out.

WIth Usenet your posted data and articles/discussions could be in your hard drive forever.

With Jabber and IRC you could bring your chat client, anything. Heck, even MSN/AOL supported several clients, both graphical and terminal, such as AMSN, tmsnc, Gaim/Pidgin, Miranda IM...

> you were from a small shitty place that nobody ever heard of, but you had transcended those humble origins to become a being of pure information, sharing thoughts, philosophy and maybe code with other similar beings, and that physical location was irrelevant and really the whole idea of it was quite vulgar.

I truly think that postmodern (Facebook onwards) social media destroyed this ethereal, noncorporeal aspect of the internet by forcing users to identify as the social media profile. Bandwidth and compute on the early internet were not sufficient to exchange HD pictures and video at the volume we deal with today, and so the early internet was a primarily literate medium, with all the characteristics and benefits of literacy that entails: an affinity for autodidacticism, learning, information exchange, rationality. It seemed to exist on an ideal plane, where we dealt not with people but concepts, and characteristics such as geographical location, ethnicity, skin color, accents, and even sex simply were never even part of the picture to form a basis for discrimination - all one could see were your words and your pseudonym, and they could be judged on their own merits irrespective of whatever postmodern notion of "identity group" authored them.

The internet was not hi-fi enough to be confused with reality, and this detachment from the messy particulars of meatspace was well-suited for the exchange of ideas along the "information superhighway." It's only when people started posting pictures and videos of themselves that we saw the culture war heat up and begin to divide people along lines of identity, for the cold rationality of what was once a literate medium had now regressed to an audiovisual medium of spectacle, soundbytes, and shorts; no longer the meritocratic marketplace of ideas where all users were treated equally and ideas could be expanded upon at length, of words and concepts responding to other ideas and thoughts, the internet is now where talking heads spew 15-second invective at one another and people are judged on their appearance, accent, sex, or any number of other dimensions orthogonal to the quality of the ideas they express.

> Being from “the library” is maybe closest in spirit in terms of being infotropic and on an autodidactic mission

Illuminating, how you chose "the library" as the nearest neighbour and not "the cinema" or "the radio." I empathize very much with the OP and finding not only refuge from a chaotic living situation but also a way out towards gainful employment by drinking from the firehose of freely available information that was the early Internet; again being a primarily literate medium it was my library-from-home where I spent more time amongst documentation, or crawling through obscure technical fora just soaking up any and all information I could, than I did talking to my friends, family, or even people in general. There were innumerable days of my life (even still true to this day) where I spent more time writing bash and talking to a computer through a terminal than I did speaking English to another living soul.

I hate that this comment is at the top of the page - that may be what you think but even if those exact sites, the chans, are the places a young person is spending their time that doesn't mean it's a problem necessarily.

I'm an adult and I spend about 80% of my time in front of screen and so do all of you.

I'm reminded of a Bible verse something about a log in your eye. That's what this is.

I actually agree with you here on all your points.

The chans in general aren't a huge issue, though nowadays, 4chan in particular IS pretty bad last time I checked.

I also don't like that my comment is at the top of the page it takes away from the article (on my screen it's third from top though).

What's on the screen matters.

Or maybe it doesn't so much. Matthew 15:17 says that it's what comes out of your mouth that matters, and by extension your posting. Jesus is watching your 4chan posts.

I’m pretty sure the author of the post would have had a similar trajectory had he been growing up now. People who are innately curious and self motivated will always find a Linux networking tutorial. Even if it comes in a form of a TikTok video and not a bunch of burned CDs.

There is an upper bound to the amount of information that can be easily conveyed through a TikTok video, and given the platform's focus on short-form content, it is not very high; likely, it is much, much lower than a book or manual or other form of written documentation.

The media we use today constrain the density and quality of information they can convey, and not in a positive fashion.

Oh yeah no doubt. I'm more talking the specifics of the phrase "raised by the internet" and what it would mean to me, without the context of the article.

That is a very fair assumption nowadays. I was not raised by the internet simply because I could not afford to even have it in the home until I was in my early 20's. Still remember the weeks after youtube being launched! The internet was that thing I had 30 minute chunks of from the local library. So it was always at arms length. Something that felt like a negative then might have been a positive in a way. The internet was this very positive force, a tool not an obsession for many.

I do worry about those nowadays that are "raised by the internet". I see the stream of influence that social media is having and I have to remember than for many people, this is all they have ever known of the internet. There is no other context. Many viewing this stuff are smart folks, but when that stream of media becomes like the air, many can be tugged in all manner of directions and now even realize it.

In the same manner of drugs, try not to turn them into a diet. The internet is a wonderful tool but a questionable 'way of life'.

Thanks for the comment. I read the post, because of your words and it was something I needed to read.

Yeah, truly revolting what gets the views on YouTube and TikTok now. Given how young the kids are who are so often given unfettered access. Too many parents wear their “clueless about technology” badges with joking pride and put no effort into learning how to set up effective parental limits.

I know what you mean and it makes a little bit sad. I loved browsing through the early web, learning stuff and break things. Especially in the seedy underbelly, IRC chats and all of that. But now, I'm happy that I am not an adulescent boy being constantly bombarded with the manosphere crap and all of these influencers. I pity the younger generation, they don't know what was taken from them. I mean, the helpful internet is still there, but hidden behind so much bullshit.