Whatever happened to our hobby?

[runequester]

I think what we are seeing is that a lot of people got involved with computers to do very specific things.
 
Judging from younger people at my workplace things like playing games, listening to music and social networking.
 
All three can be done using different devices, often easier and simpler, or while on the go.
 
Thus, the people who got a computer to do those things will switch to different devices. That's okay.

[runequester]

It's okay in that they have something simple that meets their needs, yeah - but at the same time it's sad, because there's really nothing about these devices that would push them out of their comfort zone to discover other things that can be done with a computer.

This is true. I guess the question is whether they'd have the inclination to or not to begin with.

[runequester]

well, there's a lot of "stuff" you can get out of a computer.

Some people like tinkering with hardware.

Some people like doing crazy casemods and custom jobs.

Some people like coding.

Some people like tweaking performance.

Some people like customizing the hell out of the user interface etc etc.

[runequester]

Erm... nope...

But you have the freedom to do so. And thats the great thing about it