Genealogy became my lifetime hobby when I was fourteen years old and joined my dad in the pursuit. Since then, the internet + digitization have opened up so many records and lines of inquiry, making the ancestral hunt much easier. Thankfully my day job as a historian still allows me to rifle through physical archival collections on occasion and talk to real people - online research could never replace that experience. But at the end of the day I am grateful for the convenience of online research!