I am a C programmer. C is my first language. I have shipped C code. I'm pretty sure I've literally shipped C code, in shrink-wrapped boxes. I took my kids to the museum today and hung out in the cafe pushing commits while they wandered around. What was I hacking on? A C compiler.

C is less relevant now than it was in 1996. A lot less relevant. Way, way, way less relevant. In 1996, most serious software was written in C. Today, only a tiny fraction of it is.