For younger generations, what was it like growing up with the internet? - eviltoast

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?
  • imaginepayingforred@lemm.eeEnglish
    2·
    2 months ago

    I was 8 years old when I first got my hands on my uncle’s new Blackberry that had unlimited internet access on it. I literally searched and looked up every single thing on the internet. Took me like 30 minutes to get to porn and an hour to see my first gore video. Quite the experience. I still cringe thinking about the fact if he ever checked his phone history or not.

    But it quickly became a part of your life not unlike TV or computers.