Family Feuds·
THE INTERNET CUTOFF
Each morning a high schooler wakes to a missing PC and WI-FI cord, forced to watch peers game from the outside as data limits and distance deepen.
Should the parents keep control, or should the poster get access?
Be one of the first to vote.
Every morning, the PC and WiFi cable disappear before school starts.
By the time the poster wakes up and gets through the day, the setup that could connect them to everyone else is already out of reach, packed away by parents who take it with them when they leave for work. Summer is almost over, but the routine has stayed the same: no games, no online hanging out, no easy way to join in when friends are talking about what they played last night.
The poster says they're a high schooler and still not allowed to play any games, even though they're doing well academically. That part stings because this isn't some temporary restriction from childhood that should have faded by now. It hasn't. The computer is there, but not really theirs to use. The WiFi cable is there, but not really available. Every day starts with the same quiet removal.
And the missing games have shaped more than free time. In middle school, the poster says they were isolated because they did not and could not play games, and then the COVID years landed on top of that. While other kids were bonding over multiplayer sessions and whatever was trending, the poster was left on the outside of those conversations. No shared lobby. No late-night matches. No easy way to say yes when everyone else was already inside the joke.
High school improved things somewhat. The poster says things got better there, but not enough to erase the feeling that comes every time someone says, "game night?" That tiny invitation has become its own kind of spotlight. One person asks. A bunch of people say yes. And the poster is there, hearing the same words that open the door for everyone else, while staying stuck outside it.
The loneliness isn't only about games, either. It's about being present for the conversations and still not being able to step into them.
The poster also adds another limit: starting last month, they've only had "1.5gb data a month." So even on the rare occasions when the home internet is unavailable and the phone could help, there's almost nothing to use. A few messages, a little browsing, and that's about it.
The result is a summer ending with the same old barrier in place: a high schooler watching other people plan game nights, while their own PC and WiFi cable get taken away every morning before work.