1. Wasn't really explained. My mom had a desktop computer in the 2000s though, and was happy enough to let me mess around on it. I think most of my learning was from videogame tutorials.

2. I am absolutely aware, growing up with access to the entire collective human experience is batshit insane. I'm glad that I mostly abstained from the social media craze, but just the sheer amount of noise the Internet generates can be overwhelming.

3. My mother was incredibly distant, and my father wasn't around, so I had very, very few limiters on my internet access. I feel pretty strongly that this was a mistake, as being raised by the internet in the manner I was led to me really struggling to connect with people and empathize with them, vs just trying to exploit and scam strangers.

As for just general anecdotes...trying to even comprehend the world before the internet is really hard for me. It might as well be the Dark Ages, compared to what came after. Where I work was still using typewriters through the 90s, and only recently started using email in the 2010s, and it boggles my mind that people were able to do my job without a computer at all. It just seems like things would have been significantly more difficult.