how do you think being on Habbo / HabboxForum changed your life?

[Sharon]

Tbh this is probs aimed more at the older lot that have been on here a million years as it used to be booming on here and Habbo but feel free to answer even if you are a newer member

Looking back I can barely remember a lot probably because I was sooooooo young (me and Gina being the babies) it is all a bit blurry to me. When Gina tells me somethings like ‘remember this person’ a lot of the time I have no idea lol

I think being on here provided me with a lot of comfort growing up as I basically spent my entire teens on here which when I didn?t love my school life made me feel a lot happier. Can?t lie though looking back I think it’s absolutely bizarre I was 13/14/15 with friends in their late teens and 20s �� just because I couldn’t imagine being 25 now and speaking to myself when I was 13 lol I read my old old posts and question why any of you were nice to me !!! Everyone I was friends with was 18+ basically. If I?d of never started playing I think I?d of been extremely lonely. However, a part of me wishes I’d never allowed myself to rely on this so much and actually left the house as teen lol because it didn’t help socially. I also question if I should have been exposed to being online so young, especially when a some people were so set on being nasty to literally a CHILD lol because I do remember times my feelings were hurt about my appearance and race (don’t worry, I’m hot af now and I’ve seen that the bully in question is dreadful. Karma did come xxx)

[buttons]

Hi Shaz,

Similarly, even though I spent A LOT of time on here, a lot of its blurry. Sometimes I see people on my insta or fbook and I'm like who the hell is that? It's probably someone from hxf! Even though back then, I knew everything about everyone - probably too obsessively, but that's what made me detective Jen.

Like you, I used this place as a crux and an escape. When I was on here I had very little friends irl (only people I could drink with), and I even dropped out of school from severe social anxiety. I had a lot of popularity on here and I'd love to say it gave me confidence and made me a better person, but it actually made me feel worse knowing it wasn't how I seen in reality. I always worried people would find out that I was really a loser and reject me. But this place was what I needed at the time, because I sure as shit wasn't getting any support in real life. I also had a really horrible homelife and I had people here to talk to about that - people that cared about me. A lot of hxf was an escape for me, but considering I didn't have anything else, it was a God send.

I'm from a tiny village originally with very little diversity. People marry their childhood sweethearts, have kids with them, and work in the same job all their life. They never travel or try anything new. Even just being on here I got to speak to such diverse people that I'd never have met in real life. Plus, I moved away from that tiny village after getting in a relationship with a hxfer and that opened up a lot of other opportunities for me. So I guess you can say it changed my life in that it made me more open minded which in turn made me a better, smarter person. Now I am exactly (well, almost) where I always wanted to be. I doubt I would have been here if I was still stuck in that village. Also happy to say that whilst I still struggle socially sometimes, I've most definitely found my voice and respect from other people.

[Inseriousity.]

god you're 25 now, I feel so old haha. I didn't know you were bullied. urgh some people suck. I can't remember if I made any jokes about that. I dont think I did cos appearance (lol pot kettle black if i bullied someone for this) or race (eww racist) but if I did then I apologise.

I should say that I think you were online at exactly the right time, I think Habbox is one of those unusual places where we were too old for it rather than you too young for it but the demographic is just slanted that way.

As for me, not sure it changed my life as such but I do think it's helped me with certain skills like putting an argument across, dealing with people, communications because it's all skills I developed during my jobs here.

Glad to see you're both doing well :)

[-:Undertaker:-]

I love that three oldies have posted in this thread. Good times.

For me, with Habbo and Rare Values I would say I learnt economics to some extent and it did give me an interest to the point where I studied (partly) macro economics at University. In terms of the forum, presenting/defending an argument is one, Habbox really improved my writing too and something that nobody has really touched on is this; Habbox was quite interesting in how it informed me how different people have totally niche interests in certain things, something you don't really learn in secondary school because everyone is secretive to an extent at that age to avoid being seen as 'weird' so they hide what their true interests are. On HabboxForum you didn't really have that need for secrecy.

Who'd have thought back in 2006 we'd all still be posting on here in 2024 looking back at it all? Crazy.

[Kardan]

For sure it had an impact. When I joined the forum at 11 years old I was very immature and back then the average age of Habbo(x) felt like it was 18 so I had to grow up quickly to try and fit in. Being selected as a Habbo expert at the age of 12 was pretty ridiculous.

The biggest takeaway for me, is probably being online so much got me to type ridiculously quickly. My students probably ask me once a month how can I type so fast - I'm never going to say it's because of crazy HxF threads where there would be a new page in less than a minute, or because of the Friday night quizzes in HxHD - I just tell them it's the same reason that they can type on their phones so fast - which is true. All of our teenage forum years have just been replaced with the various social media stories and threads. It's crazy that I spent so much of my childhood online, and now I'm teaching students, who are the same age that I joined, who cannot use a mouse because they only know how to operate touch screen technology.

[Gina]

this is such an interesting thread to read, hello friends xxxx

similar to what you guys said really, I think the one think that makes me regret how long I spent on habbo, is how much I fear that I missed out on in the real world because of it. like whether it be meeting people or actually declining going to places because I wanted to dj online (and how much it absolutely destroyed my sleeping pattern)lol

however having said that, there is so much ive learnt from being on here that I’d never want to change. and met so many great people as a result of it and just having the exposure to people of different ages/sexuality/nationalities, particularly from such a young age

being a little online dj also grew my confidence soooo much, I used to be so shy when I was 10-14 years old and this realllly helped

I really saw habbo as an outlet and social place. It’s so weird because I was actually talking to my therapist about this the other day but there was so much drama that went on with my stepdad in my home life, it was so nice having a place to go and get away from it and generally just to confide in people/get advice

over the years there are so many people from here that ive loved speaking to and/or meeting. thinking about people like flyingjesus/cerys/sharon (and truly a very very very long list of people) who made such a positive impact to my life and genuinely don’t know where id be without them. I love seeing everyone on my socials still and seeing what everyone’s up to. my boyfriend finds it so rogue everytime he asks how I know that person and 8/10 times its from habbo/x hahahaha

and finally, I have an incredible talent at typing fast, world capital cities and naming the artist to pop songs all thanks to habbo. my firends are so impressed at how many pop songs I know and it’s literally from djing.

[Empired]

I was also one of the youngsters, like Gina and Sharon have said, and it really forced me to grow up fast to try and 'keep up' with people who were 5+ years my senior. 5 years doesn't feel important now I'm 25 - most of my friends are turning 30 or have just turned 30. But when I was 12, all the 17 year olds seemed sooo cool to me! I was desperate to fit in and be part of the gang. I think I semi-succeeded at this but it took until I was about 16 to really get there. I was also bullied quite relentlessly by someone on here (it was actually a group for a while but there was one main standout) and that was hard. It's mad to think now that this like 19-20 year old went out of his way SO MUCH to bully me when I was 12-13 lol. Imagine doing that now?? It's so embarrassing. Of course at the time it felt like it was the end of the world to me. Looking back now, I think my overall Habbo experience was still worth it, both ups and downs included.

Again (we're all the same really aren't we lol) I used Habbo(x) as an escape from a shitty home life. I was a young carer from the age of 10 for my dad, who finally passed away when I was 18. It was a degenerative, terminal, personality-destroying disease so over the years I watched him slowly lose all cognitive and physical function one step (or fall) at a time. I also had massive social anxiety (though I didn't have the term for it back then) and grew up under an extremely and increasingly religious mother. I don't really remember my thought process or how it truly kicked off, but I think it makes sense that I catfished as a slightly older, 'cooler' version of myself to escape my real life, where I was watching my dad become a shell and watched my mum become abusive - to him and to me.

Gina said she wonders if Habbo made her miss out on the real world, but I think Habbo was my real world for a bit; if I hadn't had this social space, I know I wouldn't have found one in the real world. I think of Habbo really fondly because of the social skills, friends and opportunities it gave me when I was at a point in life where I couldn't connect with the non-digital world. To me, if I hadn't had this online space, I wouldn't have had anything at all. God knows what would've become of me.

Finally, one of the biggest positives of the whole experience for me was the diversity of sexual orientation. Like I said, I grew up under quite a strict religious family who were what I can only describe as 'white middle class judgemental'. I lived in a very closed, white, straight, judgemental world where expectations were everything. If anyone's seen it, think Rosamund Pike's character in Saltburn but with less money lol. I know I am SO lucky to have found Habbo(x) because it meant I had no gay panic or internalised homophobia when I realised I was queer; I was so used to this community of openness and acceptance (mostly) when it came to sexual and romantic orientation that it had undone so much of the damage of the bullshit I'd been living and hearing in real life.

In short, Habbo(x) was a fucking weird, wonderful, awful, brutal, fantastic place to grow up. In spite of all the internet bullshit and the online bullying and the mistakes and dramas, for me personally I think I would've been much worse off without it all.

Big love to you all x

Edit: I've just realised I've officially been on Habbox for more than half my life. ??? !!!! ????!!!