lodessa:

robotsandfrippary:

I’ve been on the internet for 19 years, since I was 15 years old.  I find it HILARIOUS that the teenagers think they discovered the net and it’s only for them and that it’s weird that adults use it too.  I mean, when i first got on the net there were grown ass men and women in the fandom.  People with kids and mortgages and jobs.  I never thought it was odd.  There were one or two creeps, but generally they were super nice people who I became an extended child to. They were people I could ask awkward questions that I couldn’t ask my parents.  They were the older siblings I needed.  The ones that said, “Don’t date that guy, he sounds like he’s abusive” and “don’t kill yourself, I know you’re really feeling alone right now but it’ll get better” and “don’t change yourself for that guy, he’s not worth it. He’s a moron” and “I think maybe it’s time to ask your parents to take you to a counselor”

But hey, if you think it’s creepy that I exist, don’t follow me.  I’m a 34 year old woman and I’m only getting older.  But if you need someone to ask weird and embarrassing things, like what it’s like how to brown meat or how to look for an apartment or short cuts to getting unsightly dirt rings off your bathtub or you need someone to look over your art portfolio or what it’s like to have an IUD or get a breast reduction I’m your adult.  I’ll be your big sister. Because God knows *I* needed someone to be mine when I was your age.

#I think the hard thing is that when many of us were the young ones in intergenerational spaces we looked up to older people#and now when we see the ‘ew grow ups on the internet go away!!’ thing it’s like#shit#how did we miss our window?#but the truth is fandom grow ups built shit like ao3 and dreamwidth#and fandom grow ups were so helpful to me when I was a flaily teenager and college student and young adult#and it’s hard to see people talking like nobody over 21 belongs in fandom or even exists#which is crazy when most of the best writers I know are definitely at least that age or older#writing skills usually get better with time!#anyhow this all ties into fandom having lost touch with its own history#from the adults who started cons#to the adults who converted this new internet technology into a place for fandom#so if you aren’t aware that fandom has always been intergenerational and until the last decade mostly composed of adults#that’s a sad failure of our community

I see you hiding your thoughtful meta in your tags, sophia-helix, and I drag them out into the light.