I had internet access since 13yo, although it was the internet of 1996, so it was way more basic.

And for me it was a place to explore my passions way better than any library in a small city in Poland would allow.

And sure - also a ton of time on internet games / MUDs, chatrooms etc.

And internet allowed me to publish my programs, written in Delphi, since I was 13-14yo, and meet other programmers on Usenet.

On the other hand, if not for internet, I might socialise way more irl - probably doing thing that were way less intelectually developing (but more socially).

It just hit me that I need to ask one of my friends from that time what they did in their spare time, because I honestly have no idea.

The Internet of 1996 and even of 2006 was a lot more “work” than the direct-into-your-eyebulbs Internet of today.

YouTube didn’t start until 2005! Even just getting Flash working to watch Home*Runner was an effort.

I'd keep in mind that internet usage of 96 (I was there) bears no resemblance whatsoever to internet usage of today. The level of predatory sophistication of today's attention economy makes any sort of comparison between the two misguided at best.

Yes, but complaints about my generation sitting in front of computers was not that much different from my generation's complaints now of the next generation being on social media.

I had the internet as a youth, and it is pretty much entirely responsible for me having been able to build a social network and social capabilities, build the career I have today and ultimately break out of poverty.

I had the Internet when I was a kid and I ended up being a software engineer with useful skills in many different areas.

You are wrong to blame the Internet (or today LLMs). Do not blame the tool.

Sure I consumed sex when I was a kid, but I did a fuckton of coding of websites (before JavaScript caught up, but in JavaScript) and modding of games. I met lots of interesting, and smart people on IRC with mutual hobbies and so forth. I did play violent games, too, just FYI, when I was not making mods for them.

Could the difference between your experience and that of today's teenagers be in the fact that in your time, there were no online content farms hyperoptimized for maximum addictiveness, after their owners invested millions (if not billions) into making them so?

back then the web (or prior networks like Gopher, Usenet) were used and filled mainly by professionals working in the one or another field; and if you were online, you demonstrated already a basic tech undertstanding, since it wasnt as convenience as today. Sure, porn existed early on; but the "entertaining web content" was just not existing as today.

Yes, especially IRC. What people call today "gatekeeping" is exactly what gave IRC networks value.

Yes, I believe so. The only thing that was addicting to me was coding. It really was addicting. I did not leave the house all summer when I was >13 because I was busy coding. But then again, this "addiction" helped me a lot in today's world. That said, I am left with a serious impostor syndrome, however, and my social skills aren't the best, which is also required in today's world, by a programmer. :/

I spent time creating 2D and 3D game engines. It was a lot easier once the Internet arrived to me in 1993. I could connect with other like-minds and found a wealth of useful information.

Sure, there was a lot of dicking around, but overall it was positive.