7 ms·

Tech Trends I’ve Noticed As A 16 Year Old

72 points by colbyaley 14y ago

AVTizzle 14y ago
Reading this brought a smile to my face. It took me back to the days of AIM chats, the silly screennames, Casio messagers that we could program to work as remotes for the school TVs to baffle teachers, et al... I never really considered how technology was evolving during that time of my life, but it definitely was, and I'm getting nostalgic just thinking about it :)
- pirateking 14y ago
  Those programmable Casio watches were a valuable item on the school black market and for good reason.
- ihuman 14y ago
  I still have my PalmOS-powered Sony PDA with it's infrared transmitter and remote control program. It was so much fun to mess up the television and change the channel.
- herval 14y ago
  I once hacked the office's coke machine (a tap, not a vending machine) with a Palm Pilot and a modem. Good times.
RobertHoudin 14y ago
I don't think this a particularly unique or noteworthy perspective, and nor does it provide any real insight into the youth demographic. As a sidenote, I've noticed that teenagers love to declare their age when posting on the internet, as if their youth entitles them to an audience. Now get off my lawn.
- jlgreco 14y ago
  > as if their youth entitles them to an audience. To his credit, it seems to have worked well enough to get him to the front page of HN...
- alexhawdon 14y ago
  I think the crankiness will be justified when HN fills up with "I'm a 15-year old who just made this app/website/blog post", but until then it just strikes me as a bit po-faced. No offence, this might be the first time you've had this particular grumble, but someone seems to do it every time a post like this hits the front page. Incidentally, I agree with you on the blog post. The other stuff this kid's doing - quite impressive really! Wish him the best of luck. I'd LOVE to see a better thought-out follow up post along the same lines. It makes me think back to when I was his age and completely immersed in all the new, cool technology happenings - so many things I instinctively knew were 'right' and about to go massive (and they did), so many things that weren't even products that I assumed were (and later became)... Basically, I want to consult with my teenage self and use that advice to invest time/money!
  - RobertHoudin 14y ago
    It is the first time I've had this grumble, but I migrated here from Reddit to escape the onslaught of everybody-look-at-meeeeee-I'm-a-teenager!!! Apologies if I come across as grumpy; I guess others found more value in the post than I did.
    - scrumper 14y ago
      One cynical way to look at it: it's free market research from a high-spending demographic that's completely impenetrable to outsiders. I'm grateful for it, although I share your wary distaste of age-declaring youths. (Shades of those irritating, high-achieving 21 year olds who declare with no sense of irony that they've done more than people twice their age.)
    - alexhawdon 14y ago
      Sorry to single you out and jump down your throat a bit! Wholeheartedly agree in fighting the good fight and preventing HN from drowning in noise like everything else :)
  - scrumper 14y ago
    > Basically, I want to consult with my teenage self and use that advice to invest time/money! You and me both. As the eldest child, it was my job to walk the dog three times a day during school holidays. Most of the time I'd go alone. During those endless walks along riverbanks, through fields and down twisty country lanes I'd think and invent and create in my head. It was wonderful. I remember dreaming up a multi-player game set in space, where every character would be played by another real person. You'd join a ship's crew and go exploring a gigantic galaxy. I was inspired, of course, by Elite on the school BBC and Star Trek; by the 9600 baud modem my Dad 'borrowed' from work and the bulletin boards it gave me access to; and by a dreamy child's desire for complete and total escape. A good fifteen years later Eve Online came out and I got my wish, just as I was settling into a busy career and saving for my first house. I've never even downloaded it. Then there's the sketches I made in the mid '80s for a handheld computer with a touch-screen interface that would communicate, via radio, with transceivers in public buildings to give people directions and information. There was even messaging, with a kind of dead-letter-drop store-and-forward system that carried data between the transceivers on devices themselves, like a weird cross between bittorrent and the Royal Mail. I don't think I'd even heard of email at that point. I came up with so much on those long walks. Nearly all of it has been developed in some form or other, never exactly as I imagined but always better in some ways and worse in others. For me it's one of the most heartbreaking things about growing up: there's no time to indulge in exploration for its own sake. I can't focus my entire brain on a single thing for any length of time at all. If I could, if only I could.
- unimpressive 14y ago
  >As a sidenote, I've noticed that teenagers love to declare their age when posting on the internet, as if their youth entitles them to an audience. I get that feeling sometimes. I always feel bad about it afterwards. Don't worry, he'll regret it later. Source: I'm 16. I've mentioned my age on the Internet many times, every time I felt like a dick about it later. PS: This kids writing annoyed me, I know I must be doing something annoying with mine that I'm not noticing, please point it out to me; thank you in advance.
  - tedmiston 14y ago
    Comma splice Don't feel bad. Many adults don't even use commas properly.
    - unimpressive 14y ago
      Thank you. I've actually thought of that one before. Since it is noticeable, maybe I'll try fixing it tonight.
      - tedmiston 14y ago
        A worthwhile idea. If you want a nice concise grammar & style reference, Strunk & White's The Elements of Style is a classic.
        jholman 14y ago
        I disagree. Rather than rant myself, I'll just point you at these august opinions: http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/24/happy-birthday-strunk-and-white/ http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/24/happy-birt... http://chronicle.com/article/50-Years-of-Stupid-Grammar/25497 http://chronicle.com/article/50-Years-of-Stupid-Grammar/2549...
- ethnt 14y ago
  It may not be unique, but it does show how teenager have grown up with social networking. Jared Erondu had an opposite viewpoint on revealing age[1] where he couldn't talk about his age (18) because of the discrimination that followed. [1] http://theindustry.cc/2012/09/14/youre-young-im-18-so-what/ http://theindustry.cc/2012/09/14/youre-young-im-18-so-what/
- SiVal 14y ago
  I thought it was very interesting. As for being a unique perspective, why would I care about uniqueness? I care about it being informative to ME, and since I'm nowhere near 16 (and we'll just leave it at that), I'm interested in hearing about what is COMMON KNOWLEDGE, therefore NOT unique, to countless kids his age---an age I didn't have to guess at because he did me the favor of telling us. If there's an element of, "look at me" in his headline, how is that different from every other headline on HN and every other news site? The headline tells you what the "hook" is, and if you aren't interested, move on to the next hook. And if your point is that the site is cluttered with contributions announcing a kid's age, well how many more contributions are there announcing, "well, that wasn't very interesting to me"? To the OP: You did fine, kid. All publishers in all media get the approval of only a fraction of their potential audience. The best anyone ever does is to interest a small sliver of humanity. Listen to feedback, but be aware that it will be all over the map, from "Love it, do more!," to "Hate it, shut up!", to stone silence and background crickets. You can't follow all of it; just consider your options, adapt as you see fit, and keep going.
davidtgoldblatt 14y ago
It's a testament to the speed at which technology moves that, despite being not very much older than the author (he's 16, I'm 23), I feel separated by a significant age gap. I'm still often shocked that Youtube can afford all the bandwidth required for streaming video; he barely remembers the world where unlimited streaming video wasn't the norm.
- daeken 14y ago
  > I'm still often shocked that Youtube can afford all the bandwidth required for streaming video; he barely remembers the world where unlimited streaming video wasn't the norm. You know, looking back it's silly, but when Youtube came out and started getting attention (I was still in school, so this must've been 2004 or so), I remember thinking to myself "so what?" -- the idea that it was novel just never occurred to me. Back in 2002-2003, I ran a little startup (at 14-15) that did online music streaming. Built around a little PHP (later C++) daemon, you could set up playlists on the site and then connect to an icecast stream to play that playlist from any device you wanted. The music was ripped from CDs that my friends and I had, and we even added advertisements every X songs or N minutes. It eventually failed due to not being able to raise money to get licensing rights (my dad was running the business side and simply had no clue, but neither did I at the time), but it was just... no big deal to me. I had no idea that it was supposed to be a hard thing to do until a few years later, when I ended up working for MP3tunes trying to build the first online music locker. I always just assumed that the trend towards storage and bandwidth being "free" was going to move fast enough that anything I could come up with would Just Work (TM).
signalsignal 14y ago
Very interesting, especially for me as an iOS app developer. Thanks for writing this.
choxi 14y ago
That last trend of people using Facebook less and Instagram more bolsters the justification for Instagram's large purchase. I wouldn't be surprised if Zuck can see that trend from their internal data, and the community at HN hasn't noticed it yet because it's happening with the younger generation first.
- alexhawdon 14y ago
  I would be surprised if he WEREN'T using his data to do that! He has age, location, social graph and referrer headers - I'm pretty sure he can use this to predict the next big trend at least a few months before the rest of us.
- ahelwer 14y ago
  Tumblr is also extremely popular with the younger generation.
- nhebb 14y ago
  I was talking to my daughter (17) about this. As others have said, Facebook is out, and Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr are in. The one comment about Facebook that stood out: "It's been taken over by moms."
  - mahyarm 14y ago
    Do they tend to keep private profiles, use pseudonymns or just broadcast it completely publicly with twitter? I don't recall twitter having 'friend' only posts.
    - nhebb 14y ago
      Anecdotally, no. IMO, Twitter is half social engagement, half narcissism. You can make your account private, but that would void the narcissistic half.
    - michaelbuckbee 14y ago
      You can set your Twitter feed to be private - meaning only those who you follow will have access to your updates.
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biolime 14y ago
As a fellow 16 Year old I too have noticed a trend, especially in the popular iOS games. Last spring it was Temple Run then Draw Something. The game going through the school now is Bike Race. If you guys have any questions about what trends kids at my school are following feel free to ask but it's pretty much on par with the original article.
- kevinconroy 14y ago
  Advice from a 30 year old: Go learn to code now. At a minimum know HTML/CSS/JS. It takes 10,000 hours of practice to master something. Cut your teeth in high school and college. When you get out, you'll be incredibly hirable because you'll actually know how to get things done and launched. College doesn't (usually) teach you that. Need help getting started? Find a small company in your town that needs help with their website. Offer to do it for $10-$20/hour. You'll build up your resume and portfolio in a single go. Sorry for unsolicited advice - just cheering you on!
  - biolime 14y ago
    Thanks, I actually began teaching myself HTML and CSS two years ago and a few months after, I learned PHP. I created a few projects and feel PHP is currently my strongest language. I'm now learning RoR and taking a Java class in my High School but it's fairly easy because I already have some experience with C++. I'm also in an HTML class currently (not my choice) and the teacher recognized that I already know the curriculum so she lets me use her Lyna.com subscription to learn things that interest me (currently RoR). My first impressions of RoR are that it's awesome! Each video I watch I think to myself, "Wow, this simplifies some of the things I used to do in PHP immensely." Anyways thank you for the advice, I definitely plan on going to college and I've already been looking at some schools. I've also already created a few websites for some local businesses. I believe the company MediaFire is actually based in my town so I was considering possibly reaching out and asking them if I could be some sort of intern. Thanks for the comment!
tedmiston 14y ago
I've noticed that in the past few years so many different services built around sharing, liking, and commenting on images from another person have evolved (and maintained momentum). They don't seem to be doing anything special are technologically exciting, but they just keep proliferating.
pdog 14y ago
The more things change, the more they stay the same :)
jiggy2011 14y ago
Substitute in the internet itself , Nokia 3310 , ICQ , IRC and MSN messenger and that could basically describe my own late school years.
nthitz 14y ago
Interesting but this screams white upper class. If I went back to my middle or high school, (Madison WI, which is hardly as diverse as other areas) I don't think it would be the case that every 8th grader has an iPhone or iPod touch.
- yen223 14y ago
  Here in Malaysia, there are plenty of children under 12 years who regularly use iPhones. It's not uncommon to see toddlers swiping away on iPads.
  - samtp 14y ago
    I'm sure there's plenty because of the overall population, but as a % of the total? I doubt that many.
- colbyaley 14y ago
  That's a good point. My school is often criticized as being a white upper class school, mainly because of it's location in my city. I thought about trying to mention this in my article, and in hindsight should have.
  - guelo 14y ago
    Thanks for writing that up! I wish I had been as aware of these things as you are when I was your age.
  - acheron 14y ago
    Why is "white upper class" a "criticism"?
    - colbyaley 14y ago
      It shouldn't be, but that's the tone people have when talking about it.
    - herval 14y ago
kevinconroy 14y ago
They're leaving Facebook because their parents (and parent's friends) are now on Facebook and are friending them. Sure, there's privacy settings and groups, but what teenager wants to hang out at the same place as their mom?
- colbyaley 14y ago
  That may be part of it, but it's certainly not the only reason.
  - kevinconroy 14y ago
    Why else? The trends are interesting, but the why matters more than the what for teaching HN members how to pivot.
    - kaliblack 14y ago
      Here's a hypothesis partly based on facts in the article: The trend setters are early adopters and the power of the network effects sees quick adoption of the new trends. If true, it's not about pivoting, but figuring out how to connect with the relevant trend setters.
- majorlazer 14y ago
  That may be a small part of the reason, but here are some other reasons I would like to propose: 1. Up until a few weeks (months) ago Facebook's iPhone app was complete shit. My younger highschool brother (and all his friends) who are not techies in any sense, always complained about how it sucks. One time I even asked them why they switched to Instagram, and they told me the app works much better than the Facebook app and it's a lot more simple to just post pics/browse. That brings me to my next point. 2. Facebook has grown to the point where it doesn't know what it wants to be. Kind of like myspace was trying to do everything, Facebook is in a similar position (except their products actually work). Instagram specializes in just photos, and makes it easy to use. There is no other crap to get in the way, you upload pics, like them, and comment on them. That's it. Twitter specializes in just short, to-the-point comments. Where does that leave Facebook? 3. Facebook is establishing itself as a kind of social media aggregate. When I post anything to twitter, instagram, or tumblr, it automatically gets posted to my Facebook. But I rarely ever post anything directly on Facebook. From my experience, nobody is leaving Facebook, they just use it less. And as a side not, I think Facebook's strongest features are Groups and Events, I use those two features more than anything else. It is so easy to create groups and invite people, it's awesome. 4. Instagram has cool photo filters that make it very easy to make your photos look "cool" and cover up any imperfections in the pictures. Take any shitty picture and apply a filter, all of a sudden it doesn't look too bad. Sure it looks generic, but it doesn't look like complete crap (most of the time). Anyways, that's my take on fb/twitter/instagram.
nealabq 14y ago
Let's see, YouTube, iPhone, Palm, iPod, Google Talk, gmail, Facebook, iOS, Twitter, Temple Run, FarmVille, Instagram. What's next? Google+, The Elder Scrolls, Google Glass, Telepathic Siri. And or course Windows 8.1. It's the cat's meow.
boristhespider 14y ago
Thought this was going to be about Jony Ive. It isn't. Dead to me. (Sorry.)
brianchu 14y ago
As someone who only recently graduated high school, many of the trends are ones I saw as well, but many I also did not see. At my school Google Talk ("gtalk") was as popular as Facebook chat. It is still used, but I personally prefer FB chat (for convenience). Not many people from my high school have a Twitter account, and many still don't. Even fewer use it regularly. I do see more and more friends using it though. I only use it because I'm involved in the tech scene. Quite a few people have Instagram accounts (about a third of my FB friends), and use it frequently. The only shift I see going on is that more of my friends are posting photos on Instagram than they used to on FB. But everything else gets posted on FB. Maybe some of this truly is due to a difference in generations (only a couple of years).
- irollboozers 14y ago
  I'm not sure, maybe it's a more fundamental thing. It was 8 years ago when I was in high school, and back then everybody used AIM (AIM profiles anyone?). And before that, kids in the 80's used BBS's. I guess kids today use 'gtalk'. It seems teenagers at a certain age just really want to be able to talk exclusively amongst friends, away from parents and prying public eyes.
  - 18pfsmt 14y ago
    Kids in the 80s used telephones. Very few people knew what a BBS was and had the means to get on a BBS. I certainly didn't know anyone that was using a modem in the 80s.
asfdfdasfafdsss 14y ago
I have been on Twitter since the beginning but I have no idea why people use it. The length restriction is totally lame, UX is rough, and it seems infested with wannabe's (followers), selfish people that live to share their lives with hashtags and pics of innane shit, Ashton, self-proclaimed "social media experts"), and hookers. Facebook has old people, and I'm one of 'em.
- oscillator 14y ago
  To me, Twitter seems more compatible with the older internet user's view that what you do on the internet should, if you want it to be, be somewhat anonymous. Or at least feel that way.
dfield 14y ago
I'm twenty - four years older than the author. Pretty crazy to compare our experiences... 5th grade (1/2): Everyone hangs out on Neopets, lots of people are excited about the GameCube. First time I ever heard of Google. 6th grade (2/3): Neopets is still popular (but popularity is starting to wane), people hang out on AIM, some start getting cell phones. lots of students carry their CD players to school and wear their headphones whenever they can. 7th grade (3/4): iPod Mini is the "hot device", more people have cell phones. everyone hangs out in AIM chat rooms. 8th grade (4/5): iPod Mini still in, most people now have cell phones. nerdy friends start playing World of Warcraft (some never stop, stealing to support the habit). Not many people know / care what MySpace is. A few people have gmail accounts. 9th grade (5/6): Everyone has MySpace. Most people are now using gmail. A few friends have blogs / Facebook. People torrent everything. 10th grade (6/7): MySpace is the hub of all social activity. Some start using Facebook once in a while. A few people create Twitter accounts. Only one or two rich kids have iPhones - they are teased mercilessly.
- klipt 14y ago
  > (some never stop, stealing to support the habit) Wow. I wonder if anyone's done a study on the societal effects of WOW as compared to "real" drugs.

72 points by colbyaley 14y ago

Reading this brought a smile to my face. It took me back to the days of AIM chats, the silly screennames, Casio messagers that we could program to work as remotes for the school TVs to baffle teachers, et al... I never really considered how technology was evolving during that time of my life, but it definitely was, and I'm getting nostalgic just thinking about it :)

pirateking 14y ago
Those programmable Casio watches were a valuable item on the school black market and for good reason.
ihuman 14y ago
I still have my PalmOS-powered Sony PDA with it's infrared transmitter and remote control program. It was so much fun to mess up the television and change the channel.
herval 14y ago
I once hacked the office's coke machine (a tap, not a vending machine) with a Palm Pilot and a modem. Good times.

RobertHoudin 14y ago

I don't think this a particularly unique or noteworthy perspective, and nor does it provide any real insight into the youth demographic. As a sidenote, I've noticed that teenagers love to declare their age when posting on the internet, as if their youth entitles them to an audience. Now get off my lawn.

jlgreco 14y ago
> as if their youth entitles them to an audience. To his credit, it seems to have worked well enough to get him to the front page of HN...
alexhawdon 14y ago
I think the crankiness will be justified when HN fills up with "I'm a 15-year old who just made this app/website/blog post", but until then it just strikes me as a bit po-faced. No offence, this might be the first time you've had this particular grumble, but someone seems to do it every time a post like this hits the front page. Incidentally, I agree with you on the blog post. The other stuff this kid's doing - quite impressive really! Wish him the best of luck. I'd LOVE to see a better thought-out follow up post along the same lines. It makes me think back to when I was his age and completely immersed in all the new, cool technology happenings - so many things I instinctively knew were 'right' and about to go massive (and they did), so many things that weren't even products that I assumed were (and later became)... Basically, I want to consult with my teenage self and use that advice to invest time/money!
- RobertHoudin 14y ago
  It is the first time I've had this grumble, but I migrated here from Reddit to escape the onslaught of everybody-look-at-meeeeee-I'm-a-teenager!!! Apologies if I come across as grumpy; I guess others found more value in the post than I did.
  - scrumper 14y ago
    One cynical way to look at it: it's free market research from a high-spending demographic that's completely impenetrable to outsiders. I'm grateful for it, although I share your wary distaste of age-declaring youths. (Shades of those irritating, high-achieving 21 year olds who declare with no sense of irony that they've done more than people twice their age.)
  - alexhawdon 14y ago
    Sorry to single you out and jump down your throat a bit! Wholeheartedly agree in fighting the good fight and preventing HN from drowning in noise like everything else :)
- scrumper 14y ago
  > Basically, I want to consult with my teenage self and use that advice to invest time/money! You and me both. As the eldest child, it was my job to walk the dog three times a day during school holidays. Most of the time I'd go alone. During those endless walks along riverbanks, through fields and down twisty country lanes I'd think and invent and create in my head. It was wonderful. I remember dreaming up a multi-player game set in space, where every character would be played by another real person. You'd join a ship's crew and go exploring a gigantic galaxy. I was inspired, of course, by Elite on the school BBC and Star Trek; by the 9600 baud modem my Dad 'borrowed' from work and the bulletin boards it gave me access to; and by a dreamy child's desire for complete and total escape. A good fifteen years later Eve Online came out and I got my wish, just as I was settling into a busy career and saving for my first house. I've never even downloaded it. Then there's the sketches I made in the mid '80s for a handheld computer with a touch-screen interface that would communicate, via radio, with transceivers in public buildings to give people directions and information. There was even messaging, with a kind of dead-letter-drop store-and-forward system that carried data between the transceivers on devices themselves, like a weird cross between bittorrent and the Royal Mail. I don't think I'd even heard of email at that point. I came up with so much on those long walks. Nearly all of it has been developed in some form or other, never exactly as I imagined but always better in some ways and worse in others. For me it's one of the most heartbreaking things about growing up: there's no time to indulge in exploration for its own sake. I can't focus my entire brain on a single thing for any length of time at all. If I could, if only I could.
unimpressive 14y ago
>As a sidenote, I've noticed that teenagers love to declare their age when posting on the internet, as if their youth entitles them to an audience. I get that feeling sometimes. I always feel bad about it afterwards. Don't worry, he'll regret it later. Source: I'm 16. I've mentioned my age on the Internet many times, every time I felt like a dick about it later. PS: This kids writing annoyed me, I know I must be doing something annoying with mine that I'm not noticing, please point it out to me; thank you in advance.
- tedmiston 14y ago
  Comma splice Don't feel bad. Many adults don't even use commas properly.
  - unimpressive 14y ago
    Thank you. I've actually thought of that one before. Since it is noticeable, maybe I'll try fixing it tonight.
    - tedmiston 14y ago
      A worthwhile idea. If you want a nice concise grammar & style reference, Strunk & White's The Elements of Style is a classic.
      - jholman 14y ago
        I disagree. Rather than rant myself, I'll just point you at these august opinions: http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/24/happy-birthday-strunk-and-white/ http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/24/happy-birt... http://chronicle.com/article/50-Years-of-Stupid-Grammar/25497 http://chronicle.com/article/50-Years-of-Stupid-Grammar/2549...
ethnt 14y ago
It may not be unique, but it does show how teenager have grown up with social networking. Jared Erondu had an opposite viewpoint on revealing age[1] where he couldn't talk about his age (18) because of the discrimination that followed. [1] http://theindustry.cc/2012/09/14/youre-young-im-18-so-what/ http://theindustry.cc/2012/09/14/youre-young-im-18-so-what/
SiVal 14y ago
I thought it was very interesting. As for being a unique perspective, why would I care about uniqueness? I care about it being informative to ME, and since I'm nowhere near 16 (and we'll just leave it at that), I'm interested in hearing about what is COMMON KNOWLEDGE, therefore NOT unique, to countless kids his age---an age I didn't have to guess at because he did me the favor of telling us. If there's an element of, "look at me" in his headline, how is that different from every other headline on HN and every other news site? The headline tells you what the "hook" is, and if you aren't interested, move on to the next hook. And if your point is that the site is cluttered with contributions announcing a kid's age, well how many more contributions are there announcing, "well, that wasn't very interesting to me"? To the OP: You did fine, kid. All publishers in all media get the approval of only a fraction of their potential audience. The best anyone ever does is to interest a small sliver of humanity. Listen to feedback, but be aware that it will be all over the map, from "Love it, do more!," to "Hate it, shut up!", to stone silence and background crickets. You can't follow all of it; just consider your options, adapt as you see fit, and keep going.

davidtgoldblatt 14y ago

It's a testament to the speed at which technology moves that, despite being not very much older than the author (he's 16, I'm 23), I feel separated by a significant age gap. I'm still often shocked that Youtube can afford all the bandwidth required for streaming video; he barely remembers the world where unlimited streaming video wasn't the norm.

daeken 14y ago
> I'm still often shocked that Youtube can afford all the bandwidth required for streaming video; he barely remembers the world where unlimited streaming video wasn't the norm. You know, looking back it's silly, but when Youtube came out and started getting attention (I was still in school, so this must've been 2004 or so), I remember thinking to myself "so what?" -- the idea that it was novel just never occurred to me. Back in 2002-2003, I ran a little startup (at 14-15) that did online music streaming. Built around a little PHP (later C++) daemon, you could set up playlists on the site and then connect to an icecast stream to play that playlist from any device you wanted. The music was ripped from CDs that my friends and I had, and we even added advertisements every X songs or N minutes. It eventually failed due to not being able to raise money to get licensing rights (my dad was running the business side and simply had no clue, but neither did I at the time), but it was just... no big deal to me. I had no idea that it was supposed to be a hard thing to do until a few years later, when I ended up working for MP3tunes trying to build the first online music locker. I always just assumed that the trend towards storage and bandwidth being "free" was going to move fast enough that anything I could come up with would Just Work (TM).

signalsignal 14y ago

Very interesting, especially for me as an iOS app developer. Thanks for writing this.

choxi 14y ago

That last trend of people using Facebook less and Instagram more bolsters the justification for Instagram's large purchase. I wouldn't be surprised if Zuck can see that trend from their internal data, and the community at HN hasn't noticed it yet because it's happening with the younger generation first.

alexhawdon 14y ago
I would be surprised if he WEREN'T using his data to do that! He has age, location, social graph and referrer headers - I'm pretty sure he can use this to predict the next big trend at least a few months before the rest of us.
ahelwer 14y ago
Tumblr is also extremely popular with the younger generation.
nhebb 14y ago
I was talking to my daughter (17) about this. As others have said, Facebook is out, and Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr are in. The one comment about Facebook that stood out: "It's been taken over by moms."
- mahyarm 14y ago
  Do they tend to keep private profiles, use pseudonymns or just broadcast it completely publicly with twitter? I don't recall twitter having 'friend' only posts.
  - nhebb 14y ago
    Anecdotally, no. IMO, Twitter is half social engagement, half narcissism. You can make your account private, but that would void the narcissistic half.
  - michaelbuckbee 14y ago
    You can set your Twitter feed to be private - meaning only those who you follow will have access to your updates.

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biolime 14y ago

As a fellow 16 Year old I too have noticed a trend, especially in the popular iOS games. Last spring it was Temple Run then Draw Something. The game going through the school now is Bike Race. If you guys have any questions about what trends kids at my school are following feel free to ask but it's pretty much on par with the original article.

kevinconroy 14y ago
Advice from a 30 year old: Go learn to code now. At a minimum know HTML/CSS/JS. It takes 10,000 hours of practice to master something. Cut your teeth in high school and college. When you get out, you'll be incredibly hirable because you'll actually know how to get things done and launched. College doesn't (usually) teach you that. Need help getting started? Find a small company in your town that needs help with their website. Offer to do it for $10-$20/hour. You'll build up your resume and portfolio in a single go. Sorry for unsolicited advice - just cheering you on!
- biolime 14y ago
  Thanks, I actually began teaching myself HTML and CSS two years ago and a few months after, I learned PHP. I created a few projects and feel PHP is currently my strongest language. I'm now learning RoR and taking a Java class in my High School but it's fairly easy because I already have some experience with C++. I'm also in an HTML class currently (not my choice) and the teacher recognized that I already know the curriculum so she lets me use her Lyna.com subscription to learn things that interest me (currently RoR). My first impressions of RoR are that it's awesome! Each video I watch I think to myself, "Wow, this simplifies some of the things I used to do in PHP immensely." Anyways thank you for the advice, I definitely plan on going to college and I've already been looking at some schools. I've also already created a few websites for some local businesses. I believe the company MediaFire is actually based in my town so I was considering possibly reaching out and asking them if I could be some sort of intern. Thanks for the comment!

tedmiston 14y ago

I've noticed that in the past few years so many different services built around sharing, liking, and commenting on images from another person have evolved (and maintained momentum). They don't seem to be doing anything special are technologically exciting, but they just keep proliferating.

pdog 14y ago

The more things change, the more they stay the same :)

jiggy2011 14y ago

Substitute in the internet itself , Nokia 3310 , ICQ , IRC and MSN messenger and that could basically describe my own late school years.

nthitz 14y ago

Interesting but this screams white upper class. If I went back to my middle or high school, (Madison WI, which is hardly as diverse as other areas) I don't think it would be the case that every 8th grader has an iPhone or iPod touch.

yen223 14y ago
Here in Malaysia, there are plenty of children under 12 years who regularly use iPhones. It's not uncommon to see toddlers swiping away on iPads.
- samtp 14y ago
  I'm sure there's plenty because of the overall population, but as a % of the total? I doubt that many.
colbyaley 14y ago
That's a good point. My school is often criticized as being a white upper class school, mainly because of it's location in my city. I thought about trying to mention this in my article, and in hindsight should have.
- guelo 14y ago
  Thanks for writing that up! I wish I had been as aware of these things as you are when I was your age.
- acheron 14y ago
  Why is "white upper class" a "criticism"?
  - colbyaley 14y ago
    It shouldn't be, but that's the tone people have when talking about it.
  - herval 14y ago

kevinconroy 14y ago

They're leaving Facebook because their parents (and parent's friends) are now on Facebook and are friending them. Sure, there's privacy settings and groups, but what teenager wants to hang out at the same place as their mom?

colbyaley 14y ago
That may be part of it, but it's certainly not the only reason.
- kevinconroy 14y ago
  Why else? The trends are interesting, but the why matters more than the what for teaching HN members how to pivot.
  - kaliblack 14y ago
    Here's a hypothesis partly based on facts in the article: The trend setters are early adopters and the power of the network effects sees quick adoption of the new trends. If true, it's not about pivoting, but figuring out how to connect with the relevant trend setters.
majorlazer 14y ago
That may be a small part of the reason, but here are some other reasons I would like to propose: 1. Up until a few weeks (months) ago Facebook's iPhone app was complete shit. My younger highschool brother (and all his friends) who are not techies in any sense, always complained about how it sucks. One time I even asked them why they switched to Instagram, and they told me the app works much better than the Facebook app and it's a lot more simple to just post pics/browse. That brings me to my next point. 2. Facebook has grown to the point where it doesn't know what it wants to be. Kind of like myspace was trying to do everything, Facebook is in a similar position (except their products actually work). Instagram specializes in just photos, and makes it easy to use. There is no other crap to get in the way, you upload pics, like them, and comment on them. That's it. Twitter specializes in just short, to-the-point comments. Where does that leave Facebook? 3. Facebook is establishing itself as a kind of social media aggregate. When I post anything to twitter, instagram, or tumblr, it automatically gets posted to my Facebook. But I rarely ever post anything directly on Facebook. From my experience, nobody is leaving Facebook, they just use it less. And as a side not, I think Facebook's strongest features are Groups and Events, I use those two features more than anything else. It is so easy to create groups and invite people, it's awesome. 4. Instagram has cool photo filters that make it very easy to make your photos look "cool" and cover up any imperfections in the pictures. Take any shitty picture and apply a filter, all of a sudden it doesn't look too bad. Sure it looks generic, but it doesn't look like complete crap (most of the time). Anyways, that's my take on fb/twitter/instagram.

nealabq 14y ago

Let's see, YouTube, iPhone, Palm, iPod, Google Talk, gmail, Facebook, iOS, Twitter, Temple Run, FarmVille, Instagram. What's next? Google+, The Elder Scrolls, Google Glass, Telepathic Siri. And or course Windows 8.1. It's the cat's meow.

boristhespider 14y ago

Thought this was going to be about Jony Ive. It isn't. Dead to me. (Sorry.)

brianchu 14y ago

As someone who only recently graduated high school, many of the trends are ones I saw as well, but many I also did not see. At my school Google Talk ("gtalk") was as popular as Facebook chat. It is still used, but I personally prefer FB chat (for convenience). Not many people from my high school have a Twitter account, and many still don't. Even fewer use it regularly. I do see more and more friends using it though. I only use it because I'm involved in the tech scene. Quite a few people have Instagram accounts (about a third of my FB friends), and use it frequently. The only shift I see going on is that more of my friends are posting photos on Instagram than they used to on FB. But everything else gets posted on FB. Maybe some of this truly is due to a difference in generations (only a couple of years).

irollboozers 14y ago
I'm not sure, maybe it's a more fundamental thing. It was 8 years ago when I was in high school, and back then everybody used AIM (AIM profiles anyone?). And before that, kids in the 80's used BBS's. I guess kids today use 'gtalk'. It seems teenagers at a certain age just really want to be able to talk exclusively amongst friends, away from parents and prying public eyes.
- 18pfsmt 14y ago
  Kids in the 80s used telephones. Very few people knew what a BBS was and had the means to get on a BBS. I certainly didn't know anyone that was using a modem in the 80s.

asfdfdasfafdsss 14y ago

I have been on Twitter since the beginning but I have no idea why people use it. The length restriction is totally lame, UX is rough, and it seems infested with wannabe's (followers), selfish people that live to share their lives with hashtags and pics of innane shit, Ashton, self-proclaimed "social media experts"), and hookers. Facebook has old people, and I'm one of 'em.

oscillator 14y ago
To me, Twitter seems more compatible with the older internet user's view that what you do on the internet should, if you want it to be, be somewhat anonymous. Or at least feel that way.

dfield 14y ago

I'm twenty - four years older than the author. Pretty crazy to compare our experiences... 5th grade (1/2): Everyone hangs out on Neopets, lots of people are excited about the GameCube. First time I ever heard of Google. 6th grade (2/3): Neopets is still popular (but popularity is starting to wane), people hang out on AIM, some start getting cell phones. lots of students carry their CD players to school and wear their headphones whenever they can. 7th grade (3/4): iPod Mini is the "hot device", more people have cell phones. everyone hangs out in AIM chat rooms. 8th grade (4/5): iPod Mini still in, most people now have cell phones. nerdy friends start playing World of Warcraft (some never stop, stealing to support the habit). Not many people know / care what MySpace is. A few people have gmail accounts. 9th grade (5/6): Everyone has MySpace. Most people are now using gmail. A few friends have blogs / Facebook. People torrent everything. 10th grade (6/7): MySpace is the hub of all social activity. Some start using Facebook once in a while. A few people create Twitter accounts. Only one or two rich kids have iPhones - they are teased mercilessly.

klipt 14y ago
> (some never stop, stealing to support the habit) Wow. I wonder if anyone's done a study on the societal effects of WOW as compared to "real" drugs.