I've been online since the late eighties and over time I've seen some nasty NSFL stuff. I am absolutely certain this has shaped my world view to some degree. Like some other GenX-er said: "Internet is our Vietnam".
> I am absolutely certain this has shaped my world view to some degree
On the other hand many people, if I had to guess I'd say the vast majority, have not seen any of that stuff on the internet. I have, but because I actively went looking for it. Likewise if I ask around amongst friends the only ones who saw the real gore all admitted having actively searched for it. In other words: even before we saw it there might have been something different in our world view already.
It depends how terminally online you are too. Even not actively looking for it, you'll eventually see it. Probably less likely these days than on the wild west internet ~y2k. But visiting enough forums and going to enough personal pages at the time eventually put you in front of some NSFL content. Or at least a link that you didn't actively look for but now have an option of clicking purely out of curiousity.
That's sort of the point though: we do that, but whereas around y2k forums were the online communities, I don't exactly have the impression that is still the case. And it's not like you're going to see much NSFL content on, say, TikTok.
> In other words: even before we saw it there might have been something different in our world view already.
Agreed. I was brought up in a troubled home and spent a lot (if not all) of my childhood/early teens on 4chans /b/ board as a result (mid-late 2000s, early 10s). Looking back at it, it seems like it was THE place that brought together all the damaged individuals.
The stuff I've seen there desensitized me to a basically every disgusting/horrid/tragic thing I had to witness later on in life, other than losses of loved ones in of themselves.
Agreed, there's a stark difference between seeing someone getting decapitated on screen and then closing the tab instead of seeing this IRL and being scared of being the next one in line or realizing that the person standing next to you is just doing this.
This is referring to the "GenX" who watched this out of his own free will, which is also not comparable to what the people in this article have to deal with.
On the other hand many people, if I had to guess I'd say the vast majority, have not seen any of that stuff on the internet. I have, but because I actively went looking for it. Likewise if I ask around amongst friends the only ones who saw the real gore all admitted having actively searched for it. In other words: even before we saw it there might have been something different in our world view already.