This gave me a sudden panic, but no - it's all still there in Google Groups, enough teenage angst and purple prose to roll my eyes back in my head with such for

This gave me a sudden panic, but no - it's all still there in Google Groups, enough teenage angst and purple prose to roll my eyes back in my head with such force that I temporarily tumbled back in time. I don't know if Usenet or IRC were really significant, compared to the social media of today. Certainly there were more nooks and crannies in which to hide, more corners you could call your own. But that's also what growing up feels like. That park bench where maybe you had your first kiss and it was once the entire universe, that's really just a place for people to sit, it means nothing. That small place you loved can't exist anymore because you're bigger, you see a broader horizon, you admit others. You can never fit yourself back down into that little, sheltered place, and you blame the places you inhabit now for being too open and noisy. Growing up is being messy, incoherent, disappointed. There's no medium that can take you back to the clarity of youth.