A brief history of life online

Stage 1 - Excitement

Now that the internet exists, I don’t need to talk to my neighbors. I can get a friendship circle that agrees with me about everything!

Stage 2 - Happiness

Ahhh. Finally, I have found my home among a narrow in-group of people constantly invoking purity tests on one another.

Stage 3 - Disillusionment

Huh. I hate my virtual community and have lost the ability to interact with my local community.

Stage 4 - Confusion

I wonder why I feel so anxious and disconnected all the time.

Stage 5 - Return to the Internet

My political opponents are to blame.

Bonapartists!

Actually, the vast majority of early Internet time was spent in an AOL chatroom pretending to be a sexy vampire.