General Discussion • Re: Internet (and other things) of the 2000s as portrayed in Grand Theft Auto IV

I enjoyed exploring the web as a child. Children’s and general websites both displayed a healthy variety of designs, and I love visiting them again in the Internet Archive and appreciating them as an adult. Although there is much to be said against Flash designs respecting technical and accessibility interests, I found them charming, and I would eagerly revert to them instead of the JavaScript-based designs which have succeeded them. We had a family computer which had its own room in the house, adjoined to the living room. I freely involved my parents in my online activities, and going online, whether for games or research (I was always a boffin), was just one activity among many for me. I have many fond memories reading books in the local library or bookshop after school, drawing and writing, playing outside … Television was there also, but in a rather minor role; I knew what series I liked and was always able to record them in advance, but did not watch for watching’s sake.

Except for business, where I sign on only for that purpose and off once it is done, without distractions, I only use the internet after I have gone to my bedroom for the night, which might be 7p or an hour or two later. When I have, out of my own curiosity, filled out the regular internet addiction questionnaires, I confirm what I knew: I am firmly in control of my internet usage. The factors today which promote my internet use today are two: I like conversing with my friends, who are geographically distant, about niche interests, which we develop actively, and I like being able to access books and anime which I could not if I were limited to the library’s resources. (The need to keep my nest clean, as discussed elsewhere, means alternating between my physical and digital libraries is impractical.) Moonbat, I think, commented on how most people today stay confined to just a few SNS, and treat this as the full extent of the net. Just this evening, I have visited about thirty distinct sites in the natural course of events.