1/24
Ok here’s my last 10 years of interaction with the internet and social platforms for the one and only @tinag
Truthfully everything started for me when I was 9 or 10 years old.
Truthfully everything started for me when I was 9 or 10 years old.
03:10 PM - Jan 20, 2024
2/24
We didn’t have internet at my home so I would sit in a very specific part of our apartment so that I could steal the neighbors (unlocked) wifi to play Pokemon online with my friends.
03:10 PM - Jan 20, 2024
3/24
That opened up the WTC in Gen IV for me, and the idea that there were other people in the world just existing that I could trade with.
Jump forward a couple years and when I was 14 I got my first smartphone.
Jump forward a couple years and when I was 14 I got my first smartphone.
03:10 PM - Jan 20, 2024
4/24
With that came the ability to download mobile games, and I got really into clash of clans for a long time. This was my real introduction to online communities, I would talk to random people on the general chat and eventually made friends as a part of a clan.
03:10 PM - Jan 20, 2024
5/24
We would spend hours and hours talking about life, growing up, adding each other on apps like kik and kakao, all while playing this game together. I made friends in LA, and later in Australia, Puerto Rico, and the midwest US which for teenager me was amazing and also of very little concern.
03:10 PM - Jan 20, 2024
6/24
At some point in here I had made my first Facebook account, and I started to add these random people I met through clash on Facebook. It gave me a little snippet into their *real life* and who they were as people, which was wild.
03:10 PM - Jan 20, 2024
7/24
Some of these people were in their mid twenties and here I was as a little teenager thinking that I was so cool to have friends that were older. Not all of them were mind you, some of them were around my age as well.
03:10 PM - Jan 20, 2024
8/24
I had one friend in particular that I became quite close with, and ironically she had the same name as my sister which was pretty cool. I thought she was closer to my age, only to later find out that she was 20+ years older than me and had children my age!
03:10 PM - Jan 20, 2024
9/24
I played this game and cherished my friends here for probably 2 or 3 years, but at some point I stopped playing and those friendships drifted away naturally.
03:10 PM - Jan 20, 2024
10/24
After a couple years of bouncing from group to group I got tired of always meeting new people and not sticking around much, I had missed the core solid group I had met but those days were gone.
03:10 PM - Jan 20, 2024
11/24
That was around the time I was introduced to reddit as well, and that became my social media of choice until more recently. However something about the platform never invited me to post or create content unless I felt it was needed (like to ask questions rarely).
03:11 PM - Jan 20, 2024
12/24
More than anything I was scared to share my own thoughts for fear of criticism, a feeling that carries into me today. That was the start of my fear of online strangers, and when I started to be cautious of people.
03:12 PM - Jan 20, 2024
13/24
Then in 2019 I started playing a game called Destiny 2. I played only by myself for a long while, but at some point I decided that I wanted to try playing with other people. met a group of random and had the *worst* time playing with them.
03:12 PM - Jan 20, 2024
14/24
I felt so anxious, I was literally shaking while playing and didn’t say a single word the entire call. That one interaction put me off from trying to make friends online again for a good 6 months, and probably would have been longer if it weren’t for certain events in 2020…
03:13 PM - Jan 20, 2024
15/24
So the pandemic hit and I came across a post on reddit of some guy looking for people to do old Destiny content blind, meaning they didn’t know what to do already. That was me, and I thought this was a perfect chance to do content I wanted to try and maybe make some friends.
03:13 PM - Jan 20, 2024
16/24
So I responded, and then I joined this discord server and started to do daily raid nights with a bunch of randoms I had met.
03:13 PM - Jan 20, 2024
17/24
And from there we played day in and day out, night after night just enjoying the game but also each others company. I got to really know these people, they became some of my closest friends. I was able to open up to them about my real life issues, they were my support system when I needed it.
03:14 PM - Jan 20, 2024
18/24
More than anything they provided me a sense of community that I didn't realize I was lacking, at a time that I needed it most.
03:15 PM - Jan 20, 2024
19/24
From that group of friends I met my current roommate. We were both looking for a new place to live in the same city at the same time and despite having only met in person 3 times, trusted each other enough to say yes let’s live together.
03:15 PM - Jan 20, 2024
20/24
That was potentially one of the best decisions I’ve made up until now, as living with her in our cute little apartment has given me so much joy and space to experience life and myself in a comfortable environment.
03:16 PM - Jan 20, 2024
21/24
And that brings me to now. Looking back on all of this, I really do wonder why I struggle so much to participate in online communities. My history with them is not small, and for the most part very very successful, but there’s still a sense of intimidation that never seems to go away.
03:16 PM - Jan 20, 2024
22/24
That said, the community here has started to give me hope that the online world can be better moving forward. I want to see safe spaces for people like myself continue to grow and thrive, and I want to be a part of a larger sense of humanity than my current situation.
03:16 PM - Jan 20, 2024
23/24
Getting there will take time for sure, but it’s the right thing to do so I hope that I’m able to hold myself to it. This thread is a small step in the right direction, and I hope to continue this kind of exploration for myself and meet some cool people along the way.
03:17 PM - Jan 20, 2024
24/24
Also now that i've done a big thread like this I'm less scared of what I have to do to make it happen. Realizing that copying 1 additional spout at a time is the only way took me a minute, but now I understand.
03:18 PM - Jan 20, 2024
In response to joshie yee.
Thanks for sharing your story. It can be intimidating and hard to open up anywhere - online included. It sounds like you've had more positives than negatives, and that's great! I hope Spoutible turns out to be another positive for you. We're glad you're here! 😊
06:32 PM - Jan 21, 2024
In response to joshie yee.
Sometimes it just takes awhile to find “your people” in a new environment.
I hope you end up with a vibrant community here, that welcomes you to be your whole authentic self without worry of judgement.
Welcome!
Love,
April 💛
I hope you end up with a vibrant community here, that welcomes you to be your whole authentic self without worry of judgement.
Welcome!
Love,
April 💛
06:14 PM - Jan 21, 2024
In response to joshie yee.
It is so understandable that anyone would have thoughts and concerns about being online with others.
You don't see the person, there is no body language to gauge, no facial expressions and you are hoping that the person you cannot see is truly who they are presenting themselves as.
You don't see the person, there is no body language to gauge, no facial expressions and you are hoping that the person you cannot see is truly who they are presenting themselves as.
05:59 PM - Jan 21, 2024
