When I was a youngin', I used to create meaningless shortcuts all over the desktop using those PIFMGR icons (https://i.stack.imgur.com/I1YqC.jpg).
I think kids and adults aren't so different; we all just really want to collect and stare at colorful juicy berries—er, "apps"—on our screens (re: the research that turning them greyscale makes us look at them less.) Adults just have a greater need for rationalization toward practicality on top of an entirely aesthetic desire, and thus download apps with nice icons (or toolbars containing nice icons) that seem like they'd do something useful... and then just never use them.
Oh my, I completely forgot about this. I would change all the icons for the shortcuts on my desktop to "better" ones from this list too. Good times.
On my first PC, when I was 10, had a Norton Commander that gave me way too much power.
I found C:\ to be a mess, so I moved all files into a System folder.
I used the PC once a week or so, so when I started it again a week later I had no memory of what I did and it just wouldn't boot anymore.
But not as bad as when I tried to delete C:\Windows before it would try to stop you. (For science, of course.)