RetroInternet 11

Certain technologies have come out in the past few years that have forever changed the way humans interact with each other through the Internet. None of these technologies have been worse psychologically for pre-teens and adolescents than Xbox Live. 

In the few years that Xbox Live has been around it has taught young kids a few things:

1) If you can’t see the person, it’s perfectly acceptable to call them a Jew, a nigger or a piece of shit donkey lips virgin cock-magnet. Xbox Live has taught 12-year-olds world-wide that you can say whatever you want, to anyone, with no repercussions whatsoever.

2) Age doesn’t matter. So what if the box says you’re supposed to be 17+ because of racism, violence and gore? “I’m 12-years-old, mother fucker! Fuck waiting five more years! I want to play Call Of Duty 4, not Call Of Duty 9.”

3) If you go online and don’t talk shit, you’re somehow weaker than the other few million playing Xbox at the same time as you. Xbox Live was made for shit-talking and if you don’t do it…FUUUUCK YOU.

4) Being good at Xbox at 12 is like being blind with a great sense of hearing. Their self-esteem shoots through the roof because everyone wants to be their friend and play with them online. Then they get into the real world and call a kid who weighs a hundred pounds more than them a noob, they get shoved into a locker, turned upside down and swirlied for 20 minutes. Bad choice. 

If Xbox Live has done one thing, it’s hindered the social abilities of kids growing up who choose to use it and mimic the masses online. It’s not how people interact in the real world. Xbox Live essentially is made of millions of bullies bullying each other playing Halo at the same time. But they all know what’s really more important: the shit talking.