I had someone to teach me, my father and grandfather, but honestly even though they were "hunters" I wouldn't say that they had much knowledge about it. The fundamentals of shooting, how to field dress a deer, identify deer sign. That was about it. We did camp a lot and I enjoyed it immensely. I read more Backpacker magazines than most. That info helped me develop a backpacking/survival knowledge that has been the foundation I have built on for my Western Hunting trips.
I am 46 now, so in my youth the internet didn't really exist, was just coming online (pun intended). I spent all of my time reading hunting magazines. Though they aren't currently what they used to be it was what was easily available for a youth like me.
Fast forward to my late twenty's early thirty's, I have learned more about hunting, shooting etc. via the internet than anything else over the past 20 years. Hunting forums like this, meeting highly educated experienced people via forums and doing additional research prompted by comments or threads on hunting forums have given me the knowledge I have now. I take what I read and hear about online in chat forums or in direct conversation and then go home and do my own research. I never blindly by into something without having put forth some effort to validate or discredit it.
There is a lot still yet to learn, but you have to sift through the garbage to find it. Everyone is an "Internet Expert ........fill in the blank". But less are actual experts.