>>106271537
I'm in a somewhat similar situation as you, but maybe a slightly different perspective.
I started going on the internet when I was around six, although I had a desktop computer when I used when I was a kid offline before that. I started going online because of flash games, but I became really interested in chat rooms that some website had with the games. I'm a very shy & private person, so even as a kid I found it easier to talk to people over the internet.
What really hooked me was the forums at the time. I began to recognize usernames and enjoying reading how people acted online, whether it was serious discussion, flame wars, or people trolling. Ended up making a few very good friends from a niche forum that I talked to for years on Skype.
When I look back, I don't really know if things would have turned out that much different for me. I might have ended up just being a bookworm or something similar. I do think it helped me become a fairly decent typist which is a skill I do take advantage of pretty frequently in my career.
