No those "candies" are to create feeling that you are peers and that it is informal communication.

That is why most people like movies made by Quentin Tarantino and not by Andrei Tarkovsky.

I don't like when someone puts memes in each paragraph but at the same time I don't like to read "guru on a high horse" that comes like he is a smart ass because he pretends to be professional and all that.

I think both types of candies can coexist. If someone makes a joke, it's probably to grab your attention. If someone talks about politics, it's probably to signal something to their peers. If someone uses the last marvel as an example, it's probably a bit of both.

> I don't like when someone puts memes in each paragraph but at the same time I don't like to read "guru on a high horse" that comes like he is a smart ass because he pretends to be professional and all that.

That's fair, I don't like this style too. Which is why I like to describe what I like as "plain English". I'd say the characteristic is that the content is mostly information, and not signalling or entertainment.

Is it really just young people?

Don’t old people who sit in front of the news get a similar rush?

That was my experience working with developers of different ages. Those who were born before 1995-2000 year are fine spending hours focusing on books. Those who were born after, prefer to learn from short engaging videos. I don't judge anyone, that's just my observations, I don't claim if one method is better than the other.

Where do you get that? Do you mean software developers specifically?

I don't think they are targeted only to them. The short attention span can be a thing, although I'm not sure it's generational. For example, the usual newspaper has a lot of small articles).

On the other hand, part of the candies is to reassure your audience and try to bring them to you with something else than your content. That part applies to everyone, regardless of their age. For example, if you do a blog post on a programming technique, you could try to brand it (and yourself) as "software craftsmanship", insert a few references to people in that space, add a few paragraphs talking mostly about this ideology and not the content. Or you could use a lot of examples, references and jokes from something cultural (the current popular thing on netflix for example). These "candies" aren't targeted at people with short attention span.

> [...] young people have [...]

I hope you will forgive me for saying this but every generation leverages criticism on preceding generations for some perceived flaw. When you look back at other similar criticisms it generally can be seen as very overblown. I think in this case it's fair to say that this is not something that must be done to them, it's just something that is done to them. When you get used to something, that's what you like - it's not an intrinsic trait like you're making it seem.

I think you are biased, and falling to the age-old "young/old people bad" where young/old is picked on which one you are not

Commodari E, Guarnera M. Attention and aging. Aging Clin Exp Res. 2008 Dec;20(6):578-84. doi: 10.1007/BF03324887. PMID: 19179843.