* Windows 95 removed all thought of the user as a programmer, killing things like QBasic.
* Apple was doing likewise, even killing Hypercard.
* The web wasn't in its prime yet, limited to HTML 2.0 and 3.2, and really lousy JavaScript.
* Even electronics was tough, since DIP parts were being replaced with SMT, and the service manual was starting to become a relic, but things like Arduino and RPi didn't exist yet, and making PCBs was $$$$$.
* Shop classes were on the decline in schools, but makerspaces weren't in yet.
I feel bad for kids growing up then. Short of installing a Linux distribution, kids were left out in the cold for being anything other than consumers of technology.
There was really a golden age in the eighties and early nineties, and we seem to be in another golden age right now.