If I remember correctly, my first time accessing the internet was through a website-making/internet summer camp program at my school. I was probably around 9 or 10 during this. Most of our work was done on older desktop computers running Windows XP. Obviously my internet usage was quite restricted to school related things, but that didn't stop me and my classmates from discovering online games that weren't blocked by the schools firewall. One of these websites was "coolmathgames", which was probably the most popular games website within our school. A game called "Cargo Bridge" was the game I spent the most time on, on that website.
At some point during the following school year, I stumbled across newgrounds. There were some games I remember enjoying on there, such as interactive buddy and various mario and sonic flash games. I would sometimes sneak into the computer lab when I wasn't supposed to play online. One of the only times I remember getting sent to the principals office was because I was playing flash games during class.
I discovered YouTube around this time as well. One of my friends told me about this funny series on YouTube called "The Dumb and Stupid Adventures of Mario and Luigi" which looking back on, really wasn't that funny at all. I must have found it amazing back then though, because I bought a lot of mario plush toys just because of it. Continuing to browse YouTube, I came across other channels like Fred and Ray William Johnson neither of which were very good, but to 11 year old me was very entertaining. At some point my parents greatly cut back my access to YouTube and the internet in general (as any good parent should) and for a couple years my entertainment mostly came from offline games.
I didn't have my own computer yet, and until this point I could only access the internet through the school computers, or my Dads computer. Christmas came and I got a DSi,
technically my first personal device that could connect to the internet (apart from my Wii 
). The DSi came with an internet browser that was very basic and limited in its
functionality. Most of my internet usage on the DSi didn't come from the browser, but from a pre-installed app called Flipnote Studio.
Flipnote Studio was a application that let you draw/animate flipnotes, and also let you share them with friends or across the internet using a service called Flipnote Hatena (RIP in peace). This was the first time I was really into some form of internet subculture, it was pretty much my YouTube for a few years. It was through this service that I learned what a "meme" was. Looking back on flipnotes today, most of them definitely show their age, but it was crazy what people could animate on a little DS screen. I remember making a few myself, but they have been lost to time. Flipnote Hatena shut down in 2013, which I was sad about. Luckily a lot of hatena content has been saved and perserved on other sites. Someone actually made a replacement for hatena called sudomemo and it's pretty much just like the old thing.
The first game I ever played online was either Mario Kart Wii or DS. Mario Kart Wii's online was far superior to the DS version, so I remember playing that a lot more. Mario Kart Wii is still the best Mario Kart game, in my opinion. It's got the best characters, lots of the best tracks, great controls, and the first really good online. Its also got lots of good mods and online still exists thanks to Wiimmfi. I come back to it more than Mario Kart 8.
My first personal computer was my dad's old macbook that he gave me when he got a newer one. It was a complete piece of garbage but I still got some use out of it. It was around this time when I discovered Minecraft, which was a game I would play a lot of in the following years. Version 1.3 was the earliest version of the game I remember playing, not counting the online demo. It was a miracle my mac could even run the game, I had my render distance on like 4 chunks and the minimum possible graphics settings and I still got around 20 fps. Now that I had my own computer, I was able to go on sites like YouTube more often, and of course I discovered minecraft/gaming youtubers.
Like many other 11-12 year olds on YouTube, I tried making Minecraft videos myself with some friends. I still have some of them, and they're awful. I used QuickTime on my Mac to record my 20 fps gameplay which would drop to 10 whenever recording, and I recorded my voice through my computers built in mic and my friends voices through a house phone, which I placed beside the computer. I guess we didn't figure out that Skype existed until a bit later.
I've never used social media much, but the first account I remember making was Facebook and Instagram around the same time. (miiverse)
According to Steam, I registered my account on January 9th 2015. By then I had a Toshiba laptop that ran Windows Vista and it sucked really hard, but it was still way better than the macbook. That was also the same day I first played Team Fortress 2, another one of my favourite games that I still play today. I started to play Civilization V a bit after that. Skype was the main communication method for my friends and I from around 2014 to 2016, eventually we just moved to Discord because Skype got worse over time.
(WIP)
