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I felt the same way—until one day, I didn't. My limits expanded through the natural process of aging and coming in contact with more than what I knew. At first, I only cared about games, but the access to so much cursory information made me want to go off and see what I could learn outside of a message board. As it turned out, quite a lot. You could find out about music from VH1 or Pitchfork or kids your age; you could find out about comic books from going to the comic book store and talking to the clerks; you could find out about anything from going down a deep Wikipedia hole, or even better, reading a book. One crucial moment was when I hosted a foreign exchange student, and while planning our hectic schedule of activities, realized I didn't have time to participate in the online Pokemon tournament I'd entered. Well, I guess I have to withdraw, I thought, and promptly did so, rather than abstaining from my tangible social duties. While I gravitated away from GameFAQs, I stayed social online, instead using AIM and websites such as Livejournal and Xanga to stay connected to the friends I already knew in real life.Trending on Motherboard: US Companies Are Throwing a Fit Because They're Losing Control of the InternetToday, my usage of the internet is largely cyclical. I work online, which means I check one site, then the next, then four or six or 12 more, until I go back to the first; I continue conversations from where they left off hours ago; I read tweets until I'm caught up, then scroll back to the top so I can begin anew. I'm panning for treasure on an endless beach, walking over the same territory as soon as the sand has shifted, convinced I'll find something new—a wrinkle to a story, or a particularly wonderful video of bears. There's little of the raw escapism I felt when I was younger—the sense that when I went online I could do whatever for as long as I wanted. My world is too professional for that.If practice makes perfect, I'm the Tiger Woods of finding memes.
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