To me this is a thing, I wonder how may kids out there hack their Computers if they even have one.
In spite of AI, I expect a huge shortage of real programmers in 10 years or so and the teenagers of the 90s start retiring.
My son has found his way to it from watching youtube videos on history of computer viruses. I think it's the path from Minecraft, Minecraft hacks, Minecraft mods....
He recently asked me if we could install windows xp on virtual box like one of the youtuber he watches did. So we set that up. He has been watching youtube about secret features, testing them out and found out what happens when you delete random file in system32. He doesn't get why none of his friends understand anything he says to them about this stuff. In his mind he wonder why aren't they all watching this stuff? I had to explain he's got some pretty niche hobbies even by my standards.
I'd expand on that and say that we're forcing computers onto people who don't understand them in the first place, which aligns with what you're saying.
The same number of people are interested in tech/computers and want to have a deeper understanding, but because tech has become so required, we're seeing people who are only going to do the bare minimum.
Interesting idea.
"Back in my day you had to solve dense differential equations to design a circuit to get a filtered output on a amplifier! And then you had to manually build it! Nowadays these kids just use libraries and pass it variables to get the output they want!"
I don't think technical competence goes away, it just changes form from what you recognize as technical competence.
All I achieved was to convince them that computers are hard and stupid and not fun, and that iPads and Playstation are superior in every way.
Fast forward a decade and I end up being a programmer. Most people won’t learn technical things just for the hell of it.
maybe you are pushing them to do things with computers too early and you would have more success if you focused more on trying to capture their wonder.
Since the early 1990s, pre-packaged games and social media have delivered more dopamine faster. It's changed children and teenagers, but it's changing them in a different way than BASIC changed their parents.