fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2104 ]

[ SECRET POST #2104 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2104 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 06 pages, 129 secrets from Secret Submission Post #301.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 2 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 1 - repeat x 3 (NS to begin with)], [ 1 - unreadable ], [ 1 - secret posted as text ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

When I was 13 we got our first internet capable computer, and my life was changed. Oddly enough, I don't think I'd be nearly as confident or happy with myself as I am now without it. I was a shy, weird little kid, who did weird stuff, and said weird things when I bothered to speak. I got bullied for it, not what I'd consider very bad, but it happened. I had a pair of socks stolen from my gym locker once. To this day I don't get that one, they were crappy sock, and I wore my gym socks home with no problems....

Anyway: Internet. Before the internet I had no concept of an outlet for my massive, light speed imagination. And then I discovered that fan art, fan fiction, and original art and fiction posted on the internet were things. I realized I could do that, I really sucked at it, but I could do that. So I started drawing, and writing,(I didn't post anything till years later, but the point was i was doing things with my creativity.) and it was horrible, but I just felt so much better about myself. I was still being teased, and I never got those socks back, but I was happy with myself, and I was more confident. The teasing didn't get to me like it had before. I actually started being more outgoing, and I made more friends. I was able to do things like speak, and even sing a solo in a choir concert, which I never would have been able to do before. I bought new socks the colorful fuzzy socks, and they're pretty much the only kind I wear now. So, thank you internet, without you I would not have fuzzy socks!...wait..

So what do you guys think your lives would be like with no internet

*the sock thing is completely true by the way. I'm still confused, but I think it's fucking hilarious now.*

I think I'd get a whole hell of a lot more done if I didn't have the internet there to constantly distract me. I'd spend a lot more time outdoors, talking with family members, watching tv and playing games. I'd have way better health since I wouldn't be sitting at the computer for hours on end. My mind wouldn't be filled with all the appalling things I've learned via the internet.

On the other hand when I was deep into my eating disorder I found a support forum (technically I guess it was pro-ed/pro-ana, but we always called it "pro-support") that really really helped me out. I also talked with others dealing with suicide and related topics.

Best case scenario? ...I would have been married off and probably have four or five kids now.

Internet was hands down the best and worst thing that ever happened to me.

I might have died. Researching what the hell was going wrong with my brain helped me to explain to my doctor better what was going wrong with me because I found it very challenging to communicate what I was feeling when it was so intense.

I'm glad you're still alive. Our threesome with the tiny chameleon would not have existed otherwise <3

*hugs*

Thank you darling anon, I'm glad I'm alive too :) And also you.

da

and I would be sad to not see the little hulk bunny around

i'd definitely be worse off, that's for sure. being able to reach out to people online has helped me realize that i'm not alone in what i'm going through, that i'm not a freak, and so on and so forth. it's taken me a long time to get to the point where i feel safe enough in the real world to reach out to people and try to make the same kind of connections i was making online when i was 15 (long time as in, i am just now starting to do this). i'd really hate to think how much worse for wear i'd be if i'd had to endure almost a decade essentially alone with my fears.
for all its many flaws, the internet is beautiful at bringing people together.

I'd be much less informed, and I probably wouldn't have enjoyed college as much as I did. Say what you want about fandom and the internet, but it's good for keeping in touch with people (all my friends went to different colleges) and with finding answers to your questions. Since I sort of live in redneck land, I can imagine exactly what I'd have missed without internet.

Oh, and the internet helped me decide on my career too. :D

I'd probably have no communication skills at all. I wasn't shy as a kid, though a lot of people thought I was just because I was quiet, and didn't feel a need to say anything unless people asked me something directly, and then I'd just answer the question and shut up again (unless it was a topic I was really interested in - in which case you'd see firsthand I wasn't shy, good luck getting me to shut up...). And due to various pre-adolescent traumatic experiences and basically getting amazing scores on the SATs in 6th grade, I decided to quit going to school when I was 13, and my parents were okay with it, so I had pretty much no socialization outside my church youth group.

Until I got a modem at age 17, back in the days before the internet was really a widespread thing. Local BBSes, however, were plentiful, and I pretty much learned how to talk to people via chat rooms on the local multilines, and then awkwardly practiced turning that into real life conversations when we had board-wide get-togethers around town. Amusingly, social awkwardness was sort of the bonding factor in my first attempt at a relationship. Which lasted all of one real-life date after numerous private messages back and forth, because we were that awkward.

But I got better! By the time internet access was a thing that people actually had at home instead of going to the library to use, I was pretty darned chatty via text, and had gotten used to the idea of small talk and such. And... yeah. Discovered there was such a word as "fanfiction", and that people made sites where they posted their art, and met lots of people that way.

And oddly enough, most of the groups I fell in with were largely GLBT. Which struck me as really weird at first. I'd known a couple of gay and bi folks through the local BBS systems, and thus didn't think that the orientation was weird or that gay/bi people were creepy or anything, but I wondered why I kept winding up in groups online that were largely populated by people who weren't straight. Until during one late-night chat when a group of us who knew each other pretty well for several years by that point were talking about masturbation habits, and I was like "Wait... you mean people actually do that?" because I never had. And that led to the realization I wasn't "normal" like I had assumed, straight by default... which eventually led to me learning that asexuality was a thing that actually existed, and to figuring out that apparently a relationship with another woman was right for me, since we're now engaged and have been living together for years.

Another thing the internet did for me - we met on a fanfic mailing list while she was still in... either Seattle or San Francisco, I forget which, and we talked a bunch through IRC and LJ, and were in an RP together. While we were getting to know each other, she moved across the country back to her hometown in MA, and there wasn't really a break in our growing friendship, which grew into more than friendship. Try that without the internet. ;)

Certain aspects of my job would be harder and more time consuming and cost my company more money. There is a lot of government-generated data that I need to see and I can access most of it online, instantly, for free. Having to order reports and call around to agencies to see where I can get certain types of information and doing a lot of inter-library loans... man, that would take forever.

Having the internet is like having another sense on top of vision and hearing and all the ordinary ones. It lets me see things that are distant. I can find out when a restaurant is open and whether a book I want at the library is checked out without having to actually go there, I went without anything more than email up until I started college and I can do without internet access for extended periods of time, but not ever having it at all would make me feel like I've been hobbled.

Well, I wouldn't have a job as someone who works for an internet provider. That's one downside.

There's a lot of cool people I wouldn't have met, nor would I be as in touch with my family and friends as I am.

I'd read a lot of books. Well, I do, but even more. I'd be buying a book a week.

May or may not still be into computer games considering we got those before internet.

Job and house hunting would be harder. Same with finding out about clubs or meeting people.

Internet really makes my life more convenient, easier. It saves time between projects and interests.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ SECRET POST #2104 ]

Life if the internet never existed.

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