I managed that before r9k debuted... and I'm still socially bankrupt. There is no escape.
Exactly. You can keep going back and it was always happening on the Internet. I was doing this on various forums before 4Chan was a thing. People were doing it nearly a decade before I was born, on BBSes in the late 70s.
It just steadily became more common. Turns out replacing real in person socializing with digital distraction is just not a good idea/