The internet has made so many of my youthful amazements obsolete. I don't think kids who have been exposed to high speed internet and youtube would find much interest in exploring HF radio signals or using an acoustic modem to talk to people on the other side of the world.
That said, the internet has a whole new dark underbelly. If I were young again and granted the "get out of jail with a slap on the wrist" card again, I'd be poking at open ports and using an SDR to probe security weaknesses in modern RF systems. Getting strange music at Tower Records or from anarchist collectives out of zines has given way to youtube and a thousand other outlets. The effort may be less but there is still a world to get lost in.
There was a lot of magic in the old days, but it's still there in other ways now. Maybe the biggest danger is the end of boredom and the torrent of on-demand dopamine surrounding kids of today.
I'm not sure it's the end of boredom. Kids still get bored, even with all this stuff at their fingertips. I suspect the act of consumption itself becomes boring, even discovering new things can be boring, and you have to shift somewhere else. Maybe it's one reason why there are so many kids (and adults) on the internet creating content of their own. If consumption is boring... make your own stuff?
That said, the internet has a whole new dark underbelly. If I were young again and granted the "get out of jail with a slap on the wrist" card again, I'd be poking at open ports and using an SDR to probe security weaknesses in modern RF systems. Getting strange music at Tower Records or from anarchist collectives out of zines has given way to youtube and a thousand other outlets. The effort may be less but there is still a world to get lost in.
There was a lot of magic in the old days, but it's still there in other ways now. Maybe the biggest danger is the end of boredom and the torrent of on-demand dopamine surrounding kids of today.