Picture this: it’s 2007, and the internet is a place. It’s somewhere you go when you get home from school. You fire up the family computer, open a window to, let’s say, a fan page for Blink-182. Everything you need is there. Pictures of the band, links to download their songs, and forums to discuss your interest with other like-minded fans. It was finite. There were a few pages of good content, and it didn’t go on forever. You knew when you had seen everything you needed to see, and you would log off, free to enjoy the rest of your day in real life. 

This is what the online experience felt like to me when I was growing up. There were a few websites I could visit that contained a finite amount of information, and I was content with that. It felt approachable, like a tool designed to help us in real life rather than a warped mirror of reality. Sure, some of that is because I’ve grown up and don’t have as much use for pop-punk messageboards, but the internet has also changed around me in significant ways. Has it changed for the worse?