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by onemoresoop 531 days ago
While true, the computer as a general purpose machine has become a bloated incomprehensive, somewhat hostile affair to the user and that pushes newcomers away. There was a time when more newcomers stayed.
2 comments

I once asked a 20 something kid "do you know why computers are a big deal", and he said, "because it is a communication device"?

Computers are so good at being programmable that now a days people don't see it as a programmable device, but only as the thing that it is programmed to be. Today there are computers everywhere, but people see a workstatinon, a web server, a gaming rig, a tv, a phone etc, but never the computer is behind all those things.

And not only that but kids aren't even interested in computers any more. They want a cell phone and an ipad. That's even more abstracted.
There's still a pretty significant PC gaming culture.