>>1556152I've been here for ~15-20 years, and what I can tell you is that it's a last resort option if you really can't talk to people otherwise. Because of where and when I was born, I grew up alongside kids who were only ever interested in drinking, dangerous shit, and romanticizing petty crime (well, that included a cult of fitness at least, but I was too sick for that). I literally had no choice but to frequent these sorts of places on the internet just not to lose my mind.
But it left a scar. I've moved to a different country since, and people around here are all very good, progressive, and supportive folk, even if a bit standoffish on the surface. Yet I can't socialize with them, because anyone who wasn't brought up on internet subcultures and imageboards just feels too foreign to me now, and I also don't have anything interesting to tell them. Oh, I won or lost a silly argument about which 2hu is best girl, very interesting, yes. I've done a pirate romhack and translation of something only three people know about because you need to be this deep into this shit to understand why it even exists in the first place. So, I'm kind of stuck with my very, very small social circle who I've found through local and international chans, who all live god knows where, especially now with this part of the world being a bit silly about things. Sure, I didn't die of loneliness or liver cirrhosis or riding a train from the outside or whatever, so I'm very grateful to the internet at large, but I did push myself into a very narrow communication bubble that I will probably never be able to get out of.
tl;dr listen to the other anons, they're right. Go touch grass if you can. If you do decide to stay after all, lurk more first. Get to know how people here communicate (it's not the same as in real life and you have to grow a really thick skin) and at least find yourself a board where the culture is not completely toxic. Some boards here even I would never set foot into.