Considering how long ago I joined this website, when I'd first found it I was still engaged and late in college. Since then however this website has exposed me to people from many unrelated walks of life, which in turn exposed me to many other things rather than insulating me towards my more immediate environment.
While I had met people IRL from the forum I went to before this one too, I've met like ten people here in real life while dating one of them and living with three of them, traveled to multiple different countries and had many eye opening experiences over things I never would have done myself (with pictures too). A lot has happened from networking with people from here in real life and even from just knowing them over the net, ranging either for a single chapter or for many, and even just carrying the stories from this place with me has been a source of storytelling when it comes to "the human experience" kinds of conversations, especially when told within the framework of psychology and irony. Even having been doxed showed me a startling truth overtime where, rather than everything going to shit, very little actually changed, which meant losing one more thing to be quite as afraid of from having to give into that reality.
There's definitely some memes related to this place, and giving someone the Iceberg talk about this forum's culture has led to even being able to link to things like M.E. Thomas' interview on Dr Phil or the articles written about 'Wormboy' to grant itself a sort of comical legitimacy, a sense of culture and permanence. I enjoy watching isolated cases from Youtube channels and the like, but culture is much deeper than that when it's had years to grow, and rather than grow as a set of boxed in gardens our posts were allowed to grow more like weeds and wildflowers, given room to offend and appeal to eachother and see where it goes on it's own.
Through the freeform format rather than through a filter of rules it's allowed me to watch how different social trends and behaviors could affect a larger environment while occasionally giving me an ahead start or mild insight in noticing a larger body of people falling into similar patterns. It has given me access to some really interesting case study sheets within the Dark Triad range, whether through bonding with people here or through just observing their behavior. The way that I learn Psych is mostly relative, I range them between others I've met before while looking for similarities and trends between those adjacent to one another in that spectrum.
I'd also say my time here has increased my social confidence in some ways, it's given a floor to be able to communicate more frankly which is something I've always appreciated about this environment (when I first joined I was a lot meeker). The way that people can talk without (much) intervention here yields a sort of truth to the voice, one that takes a lot less work to sift through compared to one held down by constraints. Here they have to find their own path here by seeking out their own meaning from it rather than everyone talking the same as one-another. I've since been able to carry the same sort of voice I have here in real life and see it work out well when meeting new people, rather than sitting there stuck worrying about "what I'm supposed to say".
I can't really sit here and say this website had no impact on me, that'd be a complete lie. It has influenced me very heavily even if a lot of my beliefs are still reflectant of what I came in here with, I've known people here for longer than I've known former classmates. It's also kept me sharper in areas like Psych to keep at it here at my favorite soap opera/reality show, and the plots are so much more real, even when it's over unraveling the motivations behind a liar. Even witnessing others witness it is yet more content. It's also been a good resource for looking into things I never would have bothered to on my own, and it's been a source of consistency even when the rest of my world around me changes into something else.
If you were wanting actual stories, it's years of that. I don't even know where to start in this case when it goes pretty deep, and whenever the older stuff gets touched on you can see this sort of fire that reflects the old culture spark on for a moment. Also in the literal sense I have spent a lot of time on this website, without it I'd have been elsewhere having entirely different experiences likely with much more sterile people (or some kink community maybe, I guess that could have been a potential timeline). I really have a passion for this place even when it's not doing well over how much has ingrained into it, and I really like watching how people here do and don't rub off on eachother.
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