[hylaride]

I feel everything in this article as somebody who first got online when I was 13 in 1994. In those days you got bullied for being "good at computers" (especially in the rural area I grew up in) and the communities formed on IRC and early multiplayer gaming networks were a lifesaver. Many websites were written by college students who essentially "blogged" their newly discovered free lives, which was so appealing to my teen-aged self.

It's cliche to malign mass market consumerism, but it really is a lowest common denominator phenomenon. I feel like the internet has made grifting so scalable that it's getting more and more difficult to consume.