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Are there any GenZ people on here that can provide some illumination? How'd you get into coding?

zoomerzoomin 4y ago
Just made an account to reply, I usually lurk. I was born in 2000, and I think my experience is going to vastly differ from GenZ kids born even a couple of years after me (say > ~2003). When I was growing up Facebook was new, people would be surprised if I (as a kid) didn't have facebook or if my parents didn't have one. My parents didn't let me have one anyway. I spent time playing flash games, googling "how to hack with cmd" (didn't learn anything). Long story short I spent a lot of time on the internet (and Minecraft, but no modding). In 8th grade someone introduced me to Python and I picked up programming fast. I also read a lot of books as a kid. I think not having access to the super centralized internet we have today helped (tiktok, instagram, etc). I think having those probably limits creativity in the sense that it stops your mind from wandering. Not sure I really answered your question lol.
- danielvaughn 4y ago
  Yep you answered the question. I was born in 84. Incidentally, you and I probably learned how to code around the same time. My first exposure to it was right out of college, in 2009. But I didn't really learn it until around 2011/2012, and I've been doing it professionally since about 2013 or so. I hear what you're saying; I agree that the centralized internet isn't great for creativity. Though having access to codecademy, lynda, and a few others was super cool. Trying to learn coding without them was fairly difficult.
MatthiasPortzel 4y ago
Khan Academy has some great CS tutorials, but they also have a feed of popular programs created by users. (They have an editor that lets you write and view JS side-by-side.) I learned programming by looking at the code of programs in that feed and by making my own projects to be voted on by others. For a couple of years that was my social media, talking to other users on there, tracking what types of programs got votes, trying to circumvent Khan Academy’s security restrictions, etc. I ended up making one of the most popular programs on the website, before I started moving on to more “real world” coding. KA’s hot list is still live and there are definitely gen Z (and below) on there making programs. I would be happy to share more if you’re interested.

Just made an account to reply, I usually lurk. I was born in 2000, and I think my experience is going to vastly differ from GenZ kids born even a couple of years after me (say > ~2003). When I was growing up Facebook was new, people would be surprised if I (as a kid) didn't have facebook or if my parents didn't have one. My parents didn't let me have one anyway. I spent time playing flash games, googling "how to hack with cmd" (didn't learn anything). Long story short I spent a lot of time on the internet (and Minecraft, but no modding). In 8th grade someone introduced me to Python and I picked up programming fast. I also read a lot of books as a kid. I think not having access to the super centralized internet we have today helped (tiktok, instagram, etc). I think having those probably limits creativity in the sense that it stops your mind from wandering. Not sure I really answered your question lol.

danielvaughn 4y ago
Yep you answered the question. I was born in 84. Incidentally, you and I probably learned how to code around the same time. My first exposure to it was right out of college, in 2009. But I didn't really learn it until around 2011/2012, and I've been doing it professionally since about 2013 or so. I hear what you're saying; I agree that the centralized internet isn't great for creativity. Though having access to codecademy, lynda, and a few others was super cool. Trying to learn coding without them was fairly difficult.

MatthiasPortzel 4y ago

Khan Academy has some great CS tutorials, but they also have a feed of popular programs created by users. (They have an editor that lets you write and view JS side-by-side.) I learned programming by looking at the code of programs in that feed and by making my own projects to be voted on by others. For a couple of years that was my social media, talking to other users on there, tracking what types of programs got votes, trying to circumvent Khan Academy’s security restrictions, etc. I ended up making one of the most popular programs on the website, before I started moving on to more “real world” coding. KA’s hot list is still live and there are definitely gen Z (and below) on there making programs. I would be happy to share more if you’re interested.