Comment on Age verification and the enshitification of streaming will help reduce the decline in computer literacy in under 18s

Kolanaki@pawb.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

• Z3k3@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  We had portable storage. Magnetic tape and paper. Floppy and hard drives existed but were gor the most part out of the reach for consumers

  I understand however the c64 usually had a floppy when bought in the states

  Spending 7 hours copying code from a magazine only to find you did a dumb on line 538 was a magical experience

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• A_norny_mousse@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  I’m from the lower half of that age bracket and I never did that even once. Knowing the magic incantations to load the game from tape to memory, yes.

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  • jaybone@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    load “jumpman”, 8, 1

    Press play on tape…

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    • A_norny_mousse@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      c64 load

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  • hedgehog@ttrpg.network ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    I’m a millennial and I did it more than once on hardware older than I was, but because I wanted to, not because there were no other options.

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• billwashere@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  I remember typing in BASIC programs for my commodore from a magazine. It actually did teach me quite a bit about coding.

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• UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Gen X would have had to program everything themselves at one point

  It wasn’t everyone in the entire generational cohort working from first principles to build a massive network. You’re describing a tiny fraction of the modern tech sector doing work that was far more electrical than comp sci within a sector that was primarily academic and heavy industrial.

  Meanwhile, the rest of the Gen X cohort was still learning to use slide rules and practice pre-Excel accounting standards, when they weren’t just… pouring concrete or welding car parts or cleaning out chemical drums with pressure hoses.

  You’re describing a career path that was in the low hundred thousands back in the 1990s, which has swelled to the millions in the 2020s. And even then, we’re talking about a workforce in the hundreds of millions. The vast majority of Americans have never been techies and never will be.

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  • Kolanaki@pawb.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    I’m talking about home computing; not even for jobs.

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• XTL@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Beginning of genx is close or a few years after beginning of internet.

  It wasn’t something Joe Random could use even decade or two after, but just mentioning for correct perspective.

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  • Kolanaki@pawb.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    That is technically true. It would be more accurate to say world wide web didn’t exist.

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