I'd honestly love to if I could. I'm not on imageboards and forums just to spam "NIGGERNIGGERNIGGER" in every thread I see, I go on the internet to talk about my hobbies: shit that nobody cares about in the shitty place where I live.
Mood. I am friends with a person from Bosnia who related a very similar attitude. They hold high aptitude in IT and were able to fix or purchase retro consoles from the flea market, but naturally, there aren't that many people in his country that share his interest in retro games. And the reason he started cutting down on using the internet and doing IRL stuff instead is because he just started to lose interest in video games in general recently.
Most people have a real life as well, but it's not a case of alternatives, you can shitpost in the dumbest retard threads on the shittiest boards and still be a successful person who has healthy activities. Hell I'm sure there are some super famous and successful people here, and on 4chan, and even on altchans. No way to really know, but I'm certain of it,
You are not wrong, at least during the pandemic Gabe Newell started browsing 4chan.
Although I think the majority of celebrity figures only show up as tourists, to search up any leaks of school shootings, whistleblower leaks, nude photos of other celebrities, or in the case of Gabe... probably just getting bored out of their mind during quarantine. I'm still inclined to believe that imageboard spaces like 4chan are still largely freemasonry for the poor and retarded, which invariably makes it anti-establishment.
spending a few minutes to post like a retard is a far less damaging hobby than many other available hobbies.
I think posting on imageboards and forums is a lot better for a healthy life mix than doomscrolling tiktok or instagram like some of the people I work with.
It depends. My Instagram is filled mostly with just shitposts, music bands and whatever my friends share, while I find the negativity of boards like /v/ to be draining after a while. Also, there are moments when somebody manages to sneak in fucked up shit like loli hentai into SFW boards, which ruins my day much more than any doomscrolling on modern websites ever could. Even if it's done ironically, it's just like... why? Why do you find the video of a guy railing a dog up the ass funny, what the actual fuck is wrong with you?
And the horrifying march to the internet being fully centralized continues. Imageboards are mostly dead, many forum communities are dead or were replaced with discord servers, it's rare to find a place with a community that isn't controlled by power hungry troons or full of those who screech at any sort of differing opinion.
You may be interested in reading
this article I found the other day, that holds a very compelling title "
The internet didn’t kill counterculture—you just won’t find it on Instagram". And yeah, in the world where all mainstream media is dictated by internet algorithms and every piece of subculture like fashion can be instantly co-opted the only way to be truly punk, is to engage in anti-algorithmic behavior. It's the reason why contemporary punks or graffiti artists don't bother marketing themselves online. They may just share leaflets IRL, or post about events on instagram... but to get a date and location, you need to DM them, so all the undesirables get weed out, to ensure some doofus doesn't come in to film a "prank video" or "cringe comp" or in any sort of way invading peoples personal gathering space for content.
Fuck, writing this post is making me consider whether or not I should drop using Kiwi farms as well, or at least drastically reduce it's usage, so that I would have more time to do other things.