Middle school was the worst years of my life. It was absolute torture, the bullying, the teachers' petty power trips, the pointless lull in actual education before high school. Technology was my refuge. I passed the hours just waiting to get access to a computer, and it wasn't until a few years later that I finally got a modem and found BBSes where I could participate in discussions with real people. It was fun, it saved me from I don't know what, and it set me on a path that led to this place 25 years later.

I would have been so much better off with a cell phone.