Editing Vhsthetic (section)

== Early life ==
Tom was allegedly born on April 20, 1995, in Anaheim, California, although he has never provided documentary evidence and frequently changes the story depending on his mood. Early influences reportedly include:

* The Windows 95 startup chime played at 0.75× speed
* Abandoned mall directories from the late 1990s
* The color {{hexadecimal color|#00FFFF|cyan}} (specifically in bitmap font form)
* Repeated exposure to [[Macintosh Plus]] slowed-down tracks while consuming excessive quantities of Arizona Green Tea (half & half variant)

Tom claims to have achieved full internet sentience sometime around late 2014 after a 72-hour binge of vaporwave playlists, energy drinks, and forum lurking. He describes the moment as "when the JPEG compression artifacts started speaking back." Childhood friends (none confirmed) recall him spending hours staring at mall fountains while humming elevator music.

=== Formative years (1995–2010) ===
Little is known, but Tom has claimed in deleted tweets that he once owned a Tamagotchi that "died of neglect because I was too busy listening to Diana Ross slowed + reverb."

=== Awakening (2011–2014) ===
The period is marked by heavy consumption of Arizona Green Tea and exposure to early vaporwave uploads on YouTube. Tom allegedly "discovered" the genre during a late-night scroll and immediately declared it "the future of nothing."