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Is it normal to have grown up on the internet?
I'm 18 now, and I've essentially grown up on the internet, since the age of 8. As a consequence, I have crappy social skills IRL.. I'm terrible at keeping friends IRL. I love meeting new people, and it's fine for the first couple of times, and then it's like people just lose interest in me or something, when I'm actually an interesting person. I don't know how to keep friends. The idea of inviting someone to my house gives me a lot of anxiety, because I don't think there's anything really interesting to do here but watch TV and go on the computer. I rarely get asked to hang at other people's homes, too. I just think it's very sad, because this wasn't the child/teenage experience I wanted, that I expected. Other people's lives seem to be filled with hanging out, going to parties, going to the mall together, etc. But it's just so foreign to me. I used to have a couple good friends in the place I lived 2 years ago, but in my new town (I moved from New Jersey to Texas) I've become even more isolated because I have even less in common with most people. It really bums me out. It may just be my town, even, because it's really rural, and I've gone to concerts and met others like me in other towns. But yeah, once again, with the topic of the internet, like I've grown up with internet, and it's just cool to look back like when youtube was still young, when maplestory was still beta, when everyone had an AIM, internet jokes, before neopets got bought by viacom, the early days of gaiaonline and 4chan, etc. but at the cost of having a normal childhood, I suppose. I think I have a serious internet addiction now, and I definitely have a fear of intimacy, so ugh.. I don't know. I just hope I can make up for the loss of social things in college. But I don't know what to say, I feel kind of ashamed and sad about it. I've watched the "tween" shows and movies on nick and disneychannel and while they were fun to watch, it has always bothered me that my life had never been like that. I've never truly related to the shows, because of it. I wouldn't mind being the biggest dork if I had 2 other friends like me. cause being a loner totally sucks. I don't know how to really be friends with people here when I have so little in common with them. but then again, I don't know how to really be a friend in general I suppose. sometimes on the internet, because of my fear of intimacy I think, I'll just stop talking to someone who was my friend. and idk why, I can't bring myself to do it, and I feel really bad for doing that to them, but it's not about them, it's me. I think I'm afraid of rejection or something. letting people really know the true me. like what do I do on the weekends? computer. isn't that just sad. I wanna go to parties, hang out, etc. I want that to be normal, like it seems to be for everyone else. I don't just want to do it because it's normal, either, it seems like it would make me happier in general
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Want to answer more questions in the Health & Fitness category?
Maybe give some free advice about: Mental health?
In today's age, it is completely normal to have grown up on the internet. Technically speaking, you are a "digital native", or someone who was born into technology. Anyone being born right now in a modern civilization won't be able to remember a time when they WEREN'T connected to cyberspace.
Personally, I started installing/uninstalling software and doing basic computer maintenance when I was around 4 years old. By the time I was 9, I was upgrading drivers and getting into basic programming. At this very moment, I am giving you advice, working on writing a security program for a class of mine, and downloading several game mods.
Society is addicted to the internet as a whole. I'm not saying it's a good thing, but it is true. But being able to recognize that you may be too dependent on it is a good first step towards bringing it back to how it should be.
Try limiting the hours you spend on a computer a day. Start off with something doable, and slowly reduce the time so you eventually end up only using a computer for an hour a day(or whatever your goal may be). Like anything else that you become accustomed to, you can't simply just cut yourself completely off right away. You have to do it slowly. And completely disconnecting from cyberspace altogether wouldn't be a good idea, because the career you end up with - and nearly every aspect of your life eventually - will be somehow related to the internet.
I hope this helped at least a little bit.
Good luck,
~TheWittedPanda
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