My son spends a lot of time on the internet, some would say too much time, but he finds music, often Japanese anime music, to play on the piano or just to listen to. I really like some of it too and so does his piano teacher, who is an older mom like me who would have never listened to it if it hadn't been for my son. His piano teacher liked some of it so much that she made a copy of some anime sheet music my son found and showed it to one of her other piano students who really liked it.
He knows enough about Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga to talk to other kids if he has to, just like he learned enough about sports (through sports video games) to pretend he is interested, but this only works for a short time. It is not very satisfying to only talk about other people's interests and never your own and to be looked at like there is something wrong with you if you don't have the same interests that all the other kids have. We actually had a doctor tell us one time that I should make him watch cartoons instead of letting him watch the history, science and discovery channel shows that he loved so he would fit in better. I refused to do that and thought it was similar to the school wanting him to learn to color in the lines instead of learning what he wanted to learn.
He has found a lot of friends online, he plays mmorpg games and talked to kids from other countries who thought he could speak their language because he used google translator. He would like to learn to speak Japanese.
I am happy that the TV show Glee made his musical theater interests seem a little less different to the kids in our area. He is finding ways to be happy in our small town, but still dreams of moving to a big city where where is more of a chance there are people like him.
