I see the internet and being terminally online as a sort of predeterminate fate kind of deal. It would be like if you tripped on a rock fell and broke your leg. Do you blame the rock, or you for tripping, or maybe no one because it's mostly pointless and something that's already done? What you can choose is what you do after you've tripped.
I've been on the internet from a very young age, too young and I do regret being on there for that youngest period but much of the time I don't actually regret it. The net for me was a way out but always a supplemental thing to regular day to day life. I think that line of thinking saved me from a lot of hell that many young people experience on the internet. I never had direct message chat with weirdos or went too far into deep end of the web, the worst I got was 4chan and seeing boobs at a single digit age. I never got
that attached to the culture, at least not in the way I'd emulate it in real life but I do remember a lot of it fondly. It was like that for a while but with the 2010s things changed and suddenly it was fine to do it. Sure it was niche but the trend was there.
Cue the current year. You say that you can't imagine talking to someone IRL about blackpills and incels but this is the only time I can imagine that being an actual conversation. It and much other internet lingo has entered the cultural zeitgeist, something that's an unescapable fact. You also underestimate just how much normies are connected with the net now. We've gotten it bad but they've gotten it worse because they weren't adjusted by it. In that way, everyone is "terminally online". Terminally online meaning in this case that they spend a lot of time online. Now Terminally online can also mean just being brainrotted from the internet and yeah sure normies aren't quite there yet but they're not far off.
You have the right idea to keep in mind that this isn't real life and to not go full on into the internet persona as that is really terminally online territory. That was always my line of thinking and normies have made it the easiest it has ever been (by being unbelievably fucking shallow and annoying).
You can choose to not be terminally online even if you spend a lot of time online, it's mostly a mindset thing. You can spend your time online however you want. It's like watching TV, it's up to you what you watch... if anything.
What about le society? That's their problem not yours, just like you they make their own choices. That one friend maybe didn't choose to be an otaku with a crusty body pillow, but he did choose to stay as one. You can just like a thing and be relatively normal.
Maybe it's all cope from a fellow terminally online fellow, but it does keep me sane somewhat.
I truly believe that the freaky shadow of neetness will never leave me for the rest of my life. The urge to hide and ruminate is always there.
Stuff like that stays with you, it's like a dark spot on the soul that will never go away.
but I don't believe any terminally online users can truly purge themselves out of the wired zone without finding a stable replacement elsewhere
I can attest to that. I've all but removed myself from the net, but I still hangout at places like this. I haven't yet found the stable replacement.
i blame it on covid, really messed up everyones ability to live independently from screens. parents don't want to enforce healthy boundaries for their children because they themselves know they are addicted. i don't really see a bright future for the next generation, where being terminally online is the societal norm.
Covid only sped up what was inevitable, but man has it gotten really bad. There's also the feeling of weirdness that I can never shake that all of this is normal now as opposed to being a weirdo like 15 years ago. It's like being a nerd all over again.