It's because it's 99% just entertainment, and not that important to most people. Sorry to burst your bubble. Even your use of the word "content" gives the game away.

> And now zoomers, seduced by corporate sponsorships and the cozy fiefdoms of communities like YouTube or TikTok, have almost no concept of files or their utility, of the value of owning something detached from a profiteering cloud. They have no problem enriching those who seek to exploit them.

You’re blaming gen z for the world they were raised in? The oldest “zoomers” are about 25. You think they ran these companies for the last 20 years and made the decisions that got us here?

They have no problem enriching those who seek to exploit them because there is no other choice. Nobody actually wants this.

>You’re blaming gen z for the world they were raised in?

I read it as complaining that the work done defending the concept of digital ownership and absolute control of one's own digital space was for nought. The people coming of age in today's digital landscape were basically raised as prisoners inside of the rent/data-extracting walled gardens we have today.

I'm not blaming them, they are a victim of circumstance. But they are now the demographic that marketeers fawn over, and the demographic that shapes the immediate future. And they just don't care.

I feel your pain, exactly as you describe it. It's all horrible and wrong. And I'm 22.

Arguably when you had to search for content (either by ripping CDs or DVDs or browsing limewire, etc) you put effort into obtaining it, and so it felt worthwhile to put effort into maintaining it.

Now it's easy gained, easy lost and so people don't care.

There is a big difference between having to know the "machine code" of how something works vs. knowing the basic, skeumorphic abstractions that power productivity. However, both of those things seem to be too much for the latest cohort

Nice deflection, but the poster is absolutely right. It's a difficulty I'm having to teach the little ones in my life around. Without the understanding of the real foundational units of computing, but a "flawless" User Experience that results in the ability to get things done regardless, we're decoupling the operating the computer from understanding it, and creating an unhealthy divergence and captive audience. This is unacceptable, and a has terrible implications for the next generation.

Do you think there are (per capita) more or fewer software developers today than there were in 1980? I kind of think the inverse of your point is true, to be frank. On a per capita basis, I think it's it likely that way more people understand the fundamentals of computing.

I just think software has made computing more accessible to people that don't know the fundamentals, which I think is a good thing. I don't think operating computers should be a gatekeeping exercise where you can't use it if you don't understand what machine instructions are, or c.

You misunderstand my definition of fundamentals. I'm talking things like filesystems, networking, protocols, hardware, etc. You can spend an eternity learning all the different Apps on Android or iOS.

Not once will you figure out how to develop one without access to a traditional Desktop system, and an understanding of the fundamental underpinnings thereof. That's changing a bit now with some efforts in the FLOSS space, but it is roughly true today.

While there may be more developers now, I do not see a significant decrease in overall tech illiteracy.