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Same here. As a tech-interested kid growing up in the 90's, a very significant amount of my formative years and social development has happened online. I'm now

by ppf 6y ago

Same here. As a tech-interested kid growing up in the 90's, a very significant amount of my formative years and social development has happened online. I'm now starting to realise what a mistake that may have been (not that I could have avoided the temptation, even if I knew it for what it is). I have recently completed a digital purge, and now have no social media accounts at all (except HN), and no smartphone. Fortunately I live in a country where that is still viable, but I am excited to re-build my life in "real life".

don-code 6y ago
This is a double-edged sword. I'm definitely in the same boat as you, in that I spent most of my formative years online. But the people I interacted with, and the skills I developed, really had no parallel in the real world around me. While other kids my age talked about sports, which they'd likely never go on to play, I got some real-world project management experience by helping work on a Web browser. While other kids my age developed cliques and bullied the kids that weren't in them, I got to help build communities, and facilitate repairing divisions when they did occur. I still do. Community building is important to me. Very importantly: while other kids my age, not to mention family members, acted with outrage (as per the article) when it came to people's differences, I learned that straight and gay people can be best of friends, there are political leanings other than "conservative" and "Communist", climate change is probably a thing I should take some steps on... The list goes on. These are probably not things I'd have learned if my upbringing had skewed heavily towards real-world. I understand that your situation might be different - for others, the real world may be more palatable and practical. But I actually see the fact that I did this as a strength.

by ppf 6y ago

don-code 6y ago

This is a double-edged sword. I'm definitely in the same boat as you, in that I spent most of my formative years online. But the people I interacted with, and the skills I developed, really had no parallel in the real world around me. While other kids my age talked about sports, which they'd likely never go on to play, I got some real-world project management experience by helping work on a Web browser. While other kids my age developed cliques and bullied the kids that weren't in them, I got to help build communities, and facilitate repairing divisions when they did occur. I still do. Community building is important to me. Very importantly: while other kids my age, not to mention family members, acted with outrage (as per the article) when it came to people's differences, I learned that straight and gay people can be best of friends, there are political leanings other than "conservative" and "Communist", climate change is probably a thing I should take some steps on... The list goes on. These are probably not things I'd have learned if my upbringing had skewed heavily towards real-world. I understand that your situation might be different - for others, the real world may be more palatable and practical. But I actually see the fact that I did this as a strength.