Member-only story
Your life is your life don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission
A long, long time ago, in the year 2.000, young Philipp discovered a German gamer forum.
Shortly after, he started publishing posts there. This was the first time that he wrote something outside of school. He was just 13.
Just one year later he was the second most active member of the forum and got promoted to being a moderator.
Unfortunately, his first career as a content creator ended somewhere in 2002. High school became too demanding, therefore he cut down on games and on his internet activity.
Looking back at this episode I now realize that this was a huge mistake. I don’t want to dismiss learning for school, but an important part of growing up is also learning to interact with society.
Reading Dumbing us Down by John Taylor Gatto last month made me realize the problems of our “schooled” society once more.
Interacting with Society through Online Writing
In the offline world, interacting with society as a teenager gets harder and harder. School serves as an artificial system shielding young people from society. When they are dealing with members of society that are not their age, it’s mostly a hierarchical relationship.
