I've been addicted to the internet since 2010. I learned a lot and became a developer because of modding communities and general PC building. I've also wasted a lot of time on reddit and youtube. Can't say anything productive has come out of my time on the phone or consoles though.

It makes me wonder how the shift towards mobile and consoles will affect how useful internet addictions can be. I would have never become a developer if I remained a console or mobile gamer.

The communities that I was in are still around but I'm unsure whether young people will actually find them. Why learn how to mod games when you can scroll tiktok, browse reddit, and watch youtube for the entire day.

especially games, modern games aren't as supportive to modders than older games - it's more profitable to not provide modding tools and just to run any multiplayer servers officially with microtransactions.