There's something about the internet that turns grown-ass adults into sniveling, name-calling adolescents. We make dick jokes, start flame wars and lol so hard when others fail. In my six years at Engadget, I've learned the hard way why they say "Never read the comments." I've been called a "lady guy," a "perverted piece of shit" and a "pathetic and icky chronic wanker" by commenters with screen names that are about as original as a JanSport backpack on the first day of school.
But we're all adults here — or at least that's what our analytics team tells me — and, as our latest themed week shows, the internet isn't always the digital equivalent of an eighth-grade locker room. Over the course of the week, our editors have offered advice on how to stay cool in a connected world, clean up digital clutter, keep all your things safe online and do a little good from your desktop. They've also delved into some uniquely adult issues like online dating after 40, using the internet to dress your age, oversharing as a parent and never learning to drive in the age of automation.
One need look no further than this past year's alt-right ascent to see that the man-baby is alive and well. We live in a world where cartoon frogs are tools of oppression, and finger-pointing on a short-form social network is the preferred diplomatic tactic of world leaders, but we can all try a little harder and do a little better at pulling up our big-kid britches every once in a while. So here's to all the grown-ass folks out there. You might have a few more wrinkles and a little more debt, but you'll never have to diagram another sentence as long as you live.
-- Christopher Trout, Editor-in-Chief
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