I guess I’m curious about generations (namely GenZ and Alpha) who didn’t live in a pre-Internet time. Like,
- How was the concept first explained to you, or when did it click?
- Do you understand how insane it is to have the aggregate of all human knowledge — the only comparable thing once being a physical library or university — one search away? That it’s absolutely insane you can engage in a real-time conversation with someone on the opposite side of the world? That you can find niche communities in an instant?
- Were your parents super strict about internet usage? How quickly did you find workarounds?
I may be outside the question a little but as is tradition, I will ignore and answer anyways.
I am on the border millennial and genZ I grew up in the later 90s and 2000s and my parents adopted it early. I don’t really recall not having some form of internet access outside of being too young to operate it, basically by the time I could read I was online. Dial up at first but things kicked off getting DSL. We learned how to search and some PC basics on the elementary school computers as part of a class, before that I knew computers for games and seen my parents using the internet. Nothing needed to click as it was as I was familiar with what it was like. Started searching stuff at home once I learned how to connect the dial up. I mostly used it for games and chatting with friends until I found memes and porn.
I knew the internet was amazing way before I could wrap my head around why. If you don’t know something, you just type it in and find out. I missed a lot on early social media as I thought Twitter and Facebook was for idiots even as a kid so I didn’t connect with many peers outside of gaming.
I had free reign online even as a kid since my parents didn’t understand it past a few basics. I learned and navigated things on my own knowing nothing outside of don’t give out personal info and stranger danger. I know having unrestricted access to the internet as a kid fucked me up a little bit, but seeing something horrific online is almost a part of growing up. Unpleasant and sickening, but you see how the world really is, and appreciate not getting beheaded with a rusty knife.
