2013 was the year I got into the entire entertainment/internet culture. I was 10. My journey on the internet was probably similar to that of most of you. "frozen" it started with that. I got a pirated cd of frozen from a local shop. I wasn't even going to buy that. Elsa's dress looked so pretty and i thought " woah".
It wasn't that before frozen i did not have internet or electronic devices. back then i was still stuck on some play store games like temple run, angry bird. And then blue clues, nickelodeon, old japanese anime like shinchan, asari chan , kiteretsu , ninja hattori etc, disney XD, doraemon the whole shebang. even those these were duly taking me where i am now, but the pace was so slow!
Then i watched frozen. The first thing that ever properly created a ridge on my smooth brain :) . oh the obsession. my mother still gets shivers if she hears "let it go" in supermarket bg music. from frozen came tangled. tangled to rise of the guardians, then httyd then brave. the entire animated nine yards.
And then came the Roar of wattpad. one thing led to another, then ao3, fanfiction.net . mind you this was still 2013. I was unfortunately from one those asian countries whose animax channel got replaced by some sony kids station. but that wasnt until 2017. so here i was gawking at fairy tail, naruto, bleach, one piece, k-on! , parasyte, and old j-pop songs while smothering my face onto unrealistic fanart and smut. r34 was the best thing to happen and well it was inevitable.
i think this era ticked off my beginning of internet piracy :') oh i should be behind the bars. lord only knows how many movies ive torrented so far
then came harry porter, well i read that before but then i started readinggg it. the whole fandom culture. hunger games, percy jackson, acotar, shadow and bone, wheel of time, vampire academy, maze runner, divergent, shadowhunters.
and on the other hand i was becoming your absolute otaku geek, ( having said i have watched over a 1000 anime by 2019 or so and god knows how many endless manhwa, manga, manhua and light novels ive read) webtoon was great too! still is! not to mention 2012-13 was also the year avengers got released!
all of the guys in our class wanted to watch avengers, and i was like wait, is it that iron man thing ? and good lord !!!marvel, x-men, almost every movie and show they have released i have watched them :') okay maybe not all. dc im not that much of a fan, ive only seen the movies lol, but i loved "the gifted "
2015 knocked in! i noticed kissanime has this " kissasian" thing on their page, i clicked on it. the "most popular" one had "blue spring ride" , and a sharp nerve hit " hey hey hey!! ain't that the manga i read a year or two back ?????!!!!" i went through their catalogue and watched numerous japanese horror movies and anime/manga live action. have any of you seen ranma1/2?? 2015. then i got introduced to it all!! korean dramas, chinese, taiwanese, thai!! good lord thai dramas!!! even flipino and indonesian!!
games did not get any relieve from me either. csgo, valorant, limbo, genshin, quarry .
then i got introduced to the horrifying section of internet. no i dont access any darknet but that was the year i learnt about it all. starting from horror urban cultures, cyber legends, to gore, shock videos, live leak to down right red rooms and silk road and as well as horror rituals like elevator game. reddit had also made its way to me as my primary site of any concern or joy by 2017
the internet it was like a new universe opening its arms to me. i didn't have the best childhood. but this entire internet fandom, it helped me so much.
also matter of fact internet help me as well as probably thousands of other lgbt kids understanding and grasping. :)
i turned 20 a month back. my teenage years are finally over.
thank you internet . i just wanted to rant this out and i didn't know where to post, so i thought why not this beautiful forum. if youre reading through this, thank you