I think I kind of owe my software development career to these early days as that is what inspired me. We didn’t have smartphones when I was at school and I guess things weren’t as optimised to be so addictive but we did have Facebook and Bebo.
I remember being forced to take a typing class my senior year in HS, at which point I was already a very proficient typer. So I figured out how to hexedit the program save files and mark my exercises complete.
I feel that the new era of phones and apps have two major drawbacks:
1. The always on distraction in your pocket and on your wrist.
2. The walled garden hardware and software that makes it nearly impossible to tinker and gain a deeper understanding of the magic behind the screen.
With traditional computers, the computer was in a specific place, and people would use a computer when they were at the computer. Then, when it was time to eat lunch or go to the bathroom or go to the next class, the computer was gone.
On top of this, a real keyboard is much faster for typing, which means that less time is consumed merely transcribing one’s thoughts into text.
There's a million more toys of every variety that are dirt cheap and that they will be given as gifts, or their friends will be given as gifts. And there's just such a huge amount of _actually great_ media to consume that's much more available, ie graphic novels and age appropriate books, way more higher quality kids show, etc etc. I'm not complaining, but a terminal environment is going to take a lot of careful planning in order to compete with an embarrassment of riches.
I still think PICO-8 did a pretty good job of capturing this; given their licensing, though, I wish they had released an actual console in addition to the fantasy console. It runs fine on a Pi Zero.
our minds tend to fantasize a lot about our early days. our memories are flawed and what we remember now are full of gaps filled with fantasies that make us feel good.
On the other hand, I fear that the "think of the children" crowd will attach legal jeopardy that will mostly fall on the smart kids, their parents, and indie developers.