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ilaffey.com/belonging_online.html

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I wrote an Essay entitled "This is Where I Belong" about a place I could never visit again. I guess that's the thing about belonging. You can't understand you were "in" until you are "out". The whole time you exist in a place, you see yourself as outside that place. Only when you have left can you properly position yourself within the space. On the internet, everyone belongs. If you don't you will be quickly made to. Don't get added to group chats? Join a subreddit. The borders are fixed online. No waiting on pesky experience to know your place, it's a boolean switch. "Joined" Sites are crafted from discrete blocks. In the header? Out of the div? So while the internet creates division, it does so by distributing belonging. Tribalism is as old as humanity, and now it's apparent where we do and do not belong. Sports. I know I am a Cardinals fan. I'm from St. Louis. I hate the Cubs. I belong at a Cardinals game. Basketball? Where do I belong? Luckily this has been solved for in a profitab

I wrote an Essay entitled "This is Where I Belong" about a place I could never visit again. I guess that's the thing about belonging. You can't understand you were "in" until you are "out". The whole time you exist in a place, you see yourself as outside that place. Only when you have left can you properly position yourself within the space. On the internet, everyone belongs. If you don't you will be quickly made to. Don't get added to group chats? Join a subreddit. The borders are fixed online. No waiting on pesky experience to know your place, it's a boolean switch. "Joined" Sites are crafte

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