Fandom, Family, and Some Non-Alliterative Thoughts

It's taken me about 19 years, but I've learned two important things:

1) I love people.
2) I love belonging with people.

I don't think either of those are particularly unique; I have a feeling that they're pretty universal feelings.

But last night, I realized a third thing:

Revelation #1 + Revelation #2 = Revelation #3 ("Why I'm So Attracted to the Internet")*

In person, I'm very shy. I'm also at that strange college age, where you're struggling to balance seeing "school friends" for half the year and "home friends" for the other half. I've always loved shows and books that featured a tight-knit group of friends, and until last night, I've always regretted that I've never quite found that. (I had something close to it toward the end of grammar school and then again toward the end of high school, but they were never quite what I longed for.)

Last night, I realized that I did have that (and to some extent, maybe I still do). When I was about 12 or 13, I joined an online forum. And for about 3 years, that forum was my home. I met the most wonderful people, and I'd spend a lot of my time online, chatting with them. Eventually the fandom died out, the forum fell apart, and while I still keep in touch with many of my friends, we lost that cohesiveness of a forum.

Then, spontaneously, a bunch of us happened to be online at the same time last night. We started a chat room (which is something we'd done frequently when the forum was still up), and it was exactly what I needed. I'd been nostalgic for "us" for a long time, and I am so excited to see that that "thread of friendship" is still there.

This morning, I awoke with the happiness and excitement from last night still buzzing within me. Then I checked my e-mail (one of the first things I do in the morning) and felt even more happiness.

See, I've been trying to start a collab channel on YouTube. Yesterday I sent out an e-mail to some interested people. This morning, I awoke to some lengthy responses. And this is what I love: I love meeting people. I love learning about them. I love that the Internet makes that so easy.

Sometimes, I worry that a lot of online social-networking sites attract frivolous and self-absorbed people. And to some extent, that is true. But at the same time, I love that I can go to a website and see what someone's thoughts are, or what their music sounds like, or what their artwork looks like. I love that I can talk to people through IM, or Twitter, or YouTube, or LiveJournal, or whatever, and learn about them and what they like and what their lives are like.

So, yes, this another YAY INTERNET post. But, the Internet deserves some "Yay!" posts in its name.




* This (I hope) is the most math that will ever be done in this blog.