How Has ATS Affected Your Life?

I thought I should start a thread on this, because, honestly, I feel that ATS has really helped me progress socially. I ultimately came her both because I have been addicted for years, but probably more so because I found it difficult to communicate in physical life.

However, when I started posting and making new threads I gathered more confidence in my ability to communicate both online and offline. And I would like to thank everyone who has helped cause this to be.

However, much of the content on ATS has really gotten me down and depressed, such as constant news stories and graphic experiences. While I truly believe that there is a lot of content on this site that the public should really be aware of, I have become somewhat harmfully addicted. Thank goodness for BTS. It is said that for every negative comment, it takes about 4 or more positive comments to reverse the harmful effects. Obsession, paranoia, and panic have also become side effects of my habits, so to speak.

Every action, however, is meant to be. In looking at this I see that ultimately good and many lessons will and have come.

Love hate, lol.

I would also like to acknowledge the great conduct that is both held and valued among the ATS community standards.

Anyways, that’s my story. So, how has ATS affected your life?

[edit on 4/2/2008 by Nyorai]

Ats has greatly affected my life. Its my crack coc aine. Got to have my daily fix. I love ats as an outlet. I find it to be theraputic but it is also a double edged sword. Until Ats I didnt obsess about the state of affairs now there are times where it consumes me. Sometimes all I can think about is how screwed up things are and about the end of the world. Quite frankly it freaks me out. Thanks to ats I now have the lovely phrase "I wish I didnt know what I know". But I love it. I love the people on it and I thank the goddess we still have this last bastion of free speech.....Well I hope that was coherrent. Just thought I would respond.

Great thread. Worth a response to.

I would say ATS has changed my life alot. Its an outlet. Its good for venting, especially for the shy like me. It also will challange you. You have an opinion or POV, prepare for somebody to challange it. With a crowd so diverse, you are bound to run into somebody that thinks the opposite of you.

Ive also made some good friends on here. Ones I will probably visit at some point when I have the money to do so. It is so much more close knit than any other forum on the net. It is a great experience for people of any age. Its the way to connect to people from different places and cultures as well.

Gotta love ATS, and it would be a lie to say it doesn't change you. Approaching 3 Years of ATS experience. Came here at 15, Now I am 18. All I can say is that it is amazing how much ATS has helped me progress along. I look back at my first posts and I have changed alot. Its great to see a recording of your growth via your posts.

[edit on 6-2-2008 by grimreaper797]

Well, ATS got me interested in politics and I'm also much more skeptical of the MSM.

I usually yell at my friends because they are ignorant in politics at the age of 16 .

-Will

When I first found ats I took the time to read all of there essays and articles that were available for the topics that this site was made for. For me that was a way to find out many things that I did not know how to find other wise. When I was done doing all the reading I finely joined. Then I started posting on the forums. The points became something of a game to me. Seeing how many points I could get. But more to the point it is also an out let. Focused on reading, and posting, and being able to back up your comments. As any poster knows, posting your opinion does not mean to much around hear to any reader if you can not back it up with some evidence. So it has also really helped me finding things to back up what people say.

reply to post by Nyorai


Just as an example to my above post.
The avatar you are useing has also been used to represent the sun, and gold.

reply to post by RedGolem


The sun and gold? Although I would still like to see a source.

With this it has really widened my view on politics and conspiracy to the point where a lot of people have no idea what I am talking about, when I feel this should be common knowledge. The level of apathy and ignorance is troubling. But that's where we come in; that doesn't mean of course that we should press our views and beliefs on others.

In the beginning... hmm... what was I searching for? In any case, I took everything I saw on ATS to heart, and it wasn't until much later and after everyone thought I was crazy that I learned to take just about everything with a grain of salt.

ATS has definitely opened up new perspectives with knowledge I probably would never have known about otherwise. Knowledge most would rather not know.

Although the predictions can get really old after you've been fooled so many times :b

reply to post by Nyorai


woops, sorry I forgot to post the sorce, here it is

circle with a point in the center.

ATS has affected my life in Every GOOD way possible.
It will be my one year ATS birthday on March 15,and when I think of what I was like a year ago...Let's just say I have done a complete 180 and couldn't be happier.

Glad to have you on ATS! I think I would be a little lost without it, or at least more bored.

ATS has affected my life tremendously. I... I... can't seem to stop browsing the site(s)! It's my newest addiction ever since I stopped drinking coffee! I've learned that being indoors in front of the computer is not living life to the fullest and have neglected my social life as a result. But overall, it's a temporary fun with all the adventures of 'participating' in this indoors activity of thinking out loud with a bunch of strangers at best.

ATS/BTS has changed my life in sooooo many ways ..... I've gained some great friends on this site ...... my confidence level has raised up ........ and most important of all .......... I've "met" my dream girl on this great site , Snakeslayer , and we've been "datin' online " for 4 months already!!! ( I just feel like the luckiest guy on the planet right now )

ATS really does open up a very different view of life than the average individual; a life with the aspects of ATS, BTS, and PTS.

I am not entirely sure, but there wasn't a BTS or PTS a few years ago, correct? Maybe I just never went on it. BTS really is important to help to get to know each other and take a breather after we're done reading about how we are all going to be enslaved by corrupt elitists...

I am personally glad that I know what I do because with it I can reach out to help others better and have a deeper understanding of world affairs.

This place can certainly be time consuming if you let it be, it was content that first drew me in, but it's the lovely people that cause me to pop in several times a day now. I love people, and we sure do have a bunch of wonderful people here

I was raised by parents who thought they were genuinely raising Christian children, but did such a poor job that science and skepticism have been the only things I put faith in, ever. And conspiracy theorists are the furries of real life, so my thought was usually "lol, they so crazy".

Until I came here.

And I realized that maybe the people I used to think were crazy were... just like me. And maybe they were perfectly decent people. And maybe I wasn't doing my duty as a science geek by ignoring what they said.

And so I decided that this was a place to be, because I evidently had a lot more to learn about life than just accepted science could teach me.

So I've discovered that hey, you can do things here that would get you ostracized on a forum I formerly frequented, and that here, people care about what you've got to say. I'm not crazy here.

ATS, BTS, and PTS...

I love you. You've helped me grow as a person and broaden my horizons. Thanks to you, I'm finally learning that just because it's in a book doesn't mean it can't be questioned. Everything is questionable.

Thank you.