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by 10098
4114 days ago
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This is simply this generation's "1337 haxx0rz". Back when I was in school, Matrix was popular, and the term "hacker" had very different connotations. People would call themselves "cyberpunk", "1337", they would install linux because it was a status symbol in that culture and it was trendy to hate on microsoft. Overall, the "haxx0rz"/skiddies/whatever were just as insufferable as today's "genius 10x entrepreneur 23-year-old CTO"-s. In the end, it was a net benefit. The more talented of them actually became software engineers, IT or security specialists. Maybe a similar thing will happen with the current generation. |
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For me.. cyberpunk was cool because of Neil Stephenson, William Gibson, and uhh ShadowRun.. Somehow this meshed with the rave scene and I guess also 'industrial' music which was slowly becoming cool.. but for a while.. it wasn't quite there yet and being a hacker had negative coolness connotations kind of like being into MTG or D&D.
I never thought about the release of the movie "the Matrix" as being the pivot moment after which the consensus view of hackerdom coolness shifted (at least in highschools across america), but you're probably right.