4chan

I fear that twitter and social media generally incentivizes people to sell themselves, sell their thoughts. I can't get comfortable on there. I always feel like I'm Whoring Myself Out in some way by participating. I can’t even think about Instagram.  

The sad reality is that my people are on 4chan. I had to make a concerted effort to stop using that web site because I found it so much more gripping than scroll-through social media. Full anonymity and no rules makes people write some pretty interesting stuff. Stuff they might not say to coworkers, friends, parents or any person in their life — if they even have anyone in their life, because most people can’t take the raw ugly autistic honest truth. They don’t want to hear it. Or they don’t have the time for it. Which is the case for me, which is why I can’t go back. 

A few types of people on 4chan. There’s the “newfag” who hates just for the sake of hating, because they’ve never felt true freedom before, they’ve always been so conflict-averse and afraid IRL that they live out latent fantasies of striking back at their high school bully by lashing out anonymously online. This is the person most commonly evoked by non-4chan users, But, in my experience, this is not the most common type of user. Because most newfags eventually Lurk Moar, they learn to discern the code, separate irony from truth and eventually feel like they’re a part of some community, in many cases for the first time in their life, so they become less mean. But still so lonely. The place is so lonely.