Internet Culture

I've had access to a computer for as far back as I can remember. My parents say we've had one in the house since I was two. I also had internet access from at least the age of five, but had not only no interest in it, but no notion even that such a thing existed. Netscape was something mother used to check her email, but I didn't know what email was, and I didn't care. It was part of her work, and why should I have any interest in that?
My first exposure to the internet happened in the computer lab of Atalaya Elementary at the age of ten. I was more than a little oblivious to fads and fashion. Nearly everyone else who had a computer knew what the internet was and had ventured briefly into its depths. To keep up my facade of being an expert of the computer I greeted the internet with an air of disdain and feigned disinterest. "Yes, I know the internet very well. No, I don't really care very much."
We were required to look something up on Netscape's search engine (Google was known, but still in its baby stages), and to play on the site Mamamedia.org. Luckily, there were a few students who didn't have computers at home and I was able to catch the explanation of how to enter an address in the address bar, and how to type something into a search field. I was entertained by Mama Media, and played with it happily, but had a hard time sitting still, waiting until the end of the day when I could go home and explore the Internet on my own without classmates there to exclaim at the things I didn't know.
Sitting in my room, where the computer had been put for the very simple reason that there was no where else in the house to put it, I figured out how to connect using PPP, something I had briefly opened in past excursions through the depths of the machine and had at that previous time noticed the little red lights flash in the modem. A word I'd heard the computer teacher use in passing, as he figured out what was wrong with one student's Internet. So I knew it was relevant, and from there somehow figured out how to connect.
The first site I got involved with was Neopets, of course. And one of the very first things I learned about getting along with the internet was how to get around COPPA by lying about one's age. They go on about forty-year-old men pretending to be seventeen-year-old girls, but I'll warrant it's much more common for children under the age of thirteen to pretend to be older so that they can participate fully in various internet communities.
On Neopets, I noticed that some people had been able to customize their profiles. My though was immediately "How can I do that?", not in a doubtful way, but with all of my stubbornness directed at learning the mysteries of customization. It was explained to me by one of my friends, who spoke of html and tags and code. She told me everything she could, except for my question "But where do I put the tags?" to which she answered "You just type it in." I didn't push her, but she obviously hadn't understood my question. So then I had a goal: find a place where I could type html tags. I already knew that I could type words into a specific text area and they would appear on my profile, it simply hadn't occurred to me that you could type these magical formulas into the same space. It didn't take me very long, and then I had a place to try out code, which I first got off of the Neopets HTML Guide.
And then I discovered the forums on Neopets. What a joy! These people were far, far away from me, and I could talk to them! And they could talk back! From the html I was hopelessly infatuated, but from the point I discovered the forums, I took up permanent residence in the culture of cyberspace and it rooted itself deeply in my heart.