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The difference is that those people who are happy with YouTube videos wouldn’t have been tinkering with computers in 2006. You have to remember that tinkering w

The difference is that those people who are happy with YouTube videos wouldn’t have been tinkering with computers in 2006. You have to remember that tinkering with computers was and still is a nerdy niche. Let’s say there are 1000 people in the world. Of those, 10 are hackers (in the “tinker with computers” sense, not on the malicious sense), 20 are enthusiasts, the rest are neither. In 1990, you’d have 15 people on the net talking about computers and doing stuff with them. Everyone else is watching TV, reading books, whatever. In 2006, you have 100 people: 10 hackers, 20 enthusiasts, 70 people who found cat videos. In 2021 you have 990 people on the net: same hackers abs enthusiasts but also a whole bunch of people who are here for the cat videos. Does that detract from what the 10 hackers are doing? I don’t think so. In fact, it adds opportunity to the hackers and enthusiasts. We didn’t lose the hacker spirit. Go look at hackaday.com to see what people are working on. We simply gained an audience.

bigsuperlatives 6y ago
Somehow related: > //i.ibb.co/3Sv29Qs/23340-en-REVIEW-FINAL-Mail.png ^^
nightski 6y ago
You are creating a false dichotomy of cat videos vs. hacker. I've watched a cat video or two. I've also spent the vast majority of my life programming (coming up on 40). My point is, video games were my gateway to programming. I got into mods and then expanded from there. I'm sure I am not alone. It's these natural paths that spark curiosity which are being cut off.
- garden_hermit 6y ago
  Is there any evidence that these paths are being cut? Mod communities for video games seem like they are thriving. Look at the sheer array of Minecraft mods, or mods for nearly any popular game on Steam. Combine this with popular and easy game making software like RPGMaker, or even the ease that someone can set up a basic game on Unity. Beyond this, there are programs like Scratch and Processing that allow for fun and relatively easy computational tinkering. I doubt the natural paths of curiosity have shrunk, though they may look different. Rather, the number of people using computers has massively increased, and the number of computer "tinkerers" is just a smaller proportion of people of the larger whole.
- IgorPartola 6y ago
  I am oversimplifying the situation. There are more than 1000 people in the world, everyone can enjoy cat videos. My main point is not that the world is divided into hacked and cat videos lovers. (There are two types of people: those who divide people into two categories and those that don’t :)). My point is that there is a small percentage of the population who are makers and a large percentage who are consumers. The Internet of 30 years ago was mostly populated by the makers so it felt like everyone was a maker. Now it is much more representative of the real public because the consumers joined. It now feels like it’s mostly consumers because in the world’s population consumers outnumber makers by a large percentage. However, and this is the crux of my point, the absolute number of makers did not go down and in fact went up. You won’t find many makers in your Facebook feed, in relative numbers. But maker communities are bigger, better, easier to find, and easier to join than ever before. Just because consumers have joined the makers does not mean that things are worse. They are better. The rest is nostalgia.

bigsuperlatives 6y ago

Somehow related: > //i.ibb.co/3Sv29Qs/23340-en-REVIEW-FINAL-Mail.png ^^

nightski 6y ago

You are creating a false dichotomy of cat videos vs. hacker. I've watched a cat video or two. I've also spent the vast majority of my life programming (coming up on 40). My point is, video games were my gateway to programming. I got into mods and then expanded from there. I'm sure I am not alone. It's these natural paths that spark curiosity which are being cut off.

garden_hermit 6y ago
Is there any evidence that these paths are being cut? Mod communities for video games seem like they are thriving. Look at the sheer array of Minecraft mods, or mods for nearly any popular game on Steam. Combine this with popular and easy game making software like RPGMaker, or even the ease that someone can set up a basic game on Unity. Beyond this, there are programs like Scratch and Processing that allow for fun and relatively easy computational tinkering. I doubt the natural paths of curiosity have shrunk, though they may look different. Rather, the number of people using computers has massively increased, and the number of computer "tinkerers" is just a smaller proportion of people of the larger whole.
IgorPartola 6y ago
I am oversimplifying the situation. There are more than 1000 people in the world, everyone can enjoy cat videos. My main point is not that the world is divided into hacked and cat videos lovers. (There are two types of people: those who divide people into two categories and those that don’t :)). My point is that there is a small percentage of the population who are makers and a large percentage who are consumers. The Internet of 30 years ago was mostly populated by the makers so it felt like everyone was a maker. Now it is much more representative of the real public because the consumers joined. It now feels like it’s mostly consumers because in the world’s population consumers outnumber makers by a large percentage. However, and this is the crux of my point, the absolute number of makers did not go down and in fact went up. You won’t find many makers in your Facebook feed, in relative numbers. But maker communities are bigger, better, easier to find, and easier to join than ever before. Just because consumers have joined the makers does not mean that things are worse. They are better. The rest is nostalgia.