Or, in some tragic cases, from getting from next back to former.

being that many of them won't pass on their genes, nature will take care of it

Unless of course this is horseshit. Video games aren't new, porn definitely isn't new. Both have been around and easy enough to get for your average middle aged man that we would have already witnessed this social breakdown. Yet our genes carry forth, my children's schools are over capacity and building out. The desire to play video games or look at porn as an alternative to genuine social interaction has *always* been there. At the same time, most of us realize it's synthetic, the potato chip of the interaction (not to mention sexual) world. If anything video games and the internet are recreating the social isolation that used to be far more common when there were few people scattered farther from each other, and the best choice you had was writing a letter. As far as I'm concerned, being able to retreat into our heads more is a positive step forward, allowing us to defeat the lock-step committee approach to thinking we have depended on more heavily in the past 50 years, and allowing individualism a chance to reign again.

There is only the perception that these things are new, and that perception is useful to get funding.

In the 80s and 90s. X terminals and the like. Sooner or later the users want their power back. It will be interesting to see what happend this time around.

Not surprisingly, we neither trust our web browser, the company providing the software, nor the network it all operates on. The majority of things I use my PC for, I am not ready to release to "the cloud".

While I'm glad that hollywood starlets think the cloud is safe enough for nudes, all that proves pretty thoroughly it's not safe for anything important.

My jaded mind wonders if productivity won't be limited as more people realize just how badly they're being screwed and no longer want to slave away for some guy just because he is rich.

They are new in the corporate environment. I've had an IRC channel going now for 25 straight years, but it's always been personal. IM started being a thing at work somewhere around 2003-2005, and has since then become a virtual requirement. But even IM has evolved a lot, from something more like ICQ to an all-in-one chat/webex/sharing environment, and that has really been in the past 5 years. If you've been working for 20, that's "new". If you've been working for 5, that's "forever". Hence the generation gap.

Similarly email existed long before I started working, but I knew many companies in the mid-90s that had no email, or were just thinking about adopting it.

Pretty much this. When I started work, using email was seen as a kind of rising trend, why use email when you can call someone? Why use a website to get a datasheet when you can call the vendor and have him fax it? I used to get strange looks about my methods, I'm putting too much on myself they said, or don't want to leave my office, etc.

Now the "new trrend" (about as new as email and WWW was in the 90s) is IM, webex, wiki's. The older crowd understands these things but generally thinks they're a pain in the ass, but the younger crowd not only sees them as office furniture but doesn't think twice about setting up a webex on the spot and summoning the mages, without a day of advanced warning and a calendar invite.

I'm not sure we think they're lazy, but certainly hasty, a little inconsiderate and not used to solving problems on their own or at least thinking them through before calling in for reinforcements. It tends to be very raw. But that's just how it will be 15 years hence.

Hopefully it's MS's attempt to either get real developers to use it and justify its cost, or to ignore it and maybe finally get BASH in windows so it can stop sucking so much.

No, developers don't want this. Administrators? Administrators? Administrators?

Yeah it'll be strange. Women will run around with "JUICY" emblazoned across their watches, and men will be wandering up to them "Hey baby, you have nice genes" "How dare you!"

Hacking her watch to check out her genes may end up being considered a form of rape.

Or nah, we'll continue our present course of having the perfunctory pair of kids as we edge close to our 40s and end our reproductive years.

So I'm a yankee and don't get it, I consider "rebellion" to be a rather strong word that implies an active attempt to overthrow the government. Something we have a history of doing from time to time, and is a bit frightening. At the same time, someone in party not voting the party line is somewhat unusual, but happens often enough. Is this term "rebellion" commonly used to refer to someone who splits from the party line? Is it strictly illegal, simply not done, or a political maneuver to attempt to shift policy?

A good designer rolls his own, a great designer fixes what exists and spends his time on something new.

Wait, did I just invert that U?

I would consider lost oxen to be highly analog devices in frequent need of calibration and drift compensation. Also, their "job output" requires quite a bit of refinement and post-processing before it can be used by the end customer. Doesn't sound very digital at all.

Let me tell y'all how this works, see. What goes up? It must come down. If factries sending it up? It comes down out in the ocean. Oceans make up 75% of the earth, right? Factries can't be doin nothin bad to all that, see? If so factries would need 75% of the earth's stuff to compete with all that water!

Now these here pencil necks keep talkin like they got sumpin ta say, confusing everyone and upsetting them over greenhouses and what not. But this has got to stop, my lil girl won't quit cryin over dead polar bears! I keeps sayin' "Polar bears ain't dyin, we got some in the zoo", but she won't stop cryin' and I can't take it anymore.

I know more about computers than most digital natives, yet it's hard for me to get a job because I'm old, don't use FB, don't twit, don't insta, don't have a phone full of selfies, etc.

I understand your background, but honestly don't think you are qualified based solely on that. Application programming is a whole other world, with different tools, different practices and different objectives. I do not think I'd be qualified to apply to such a job right this instant.

I certainly could learn, easily. I know how their stuff works, I was there before it all came around. But before I applied to the position I'd have to learn it all, and walk in ready to talk about it, and find a way to get some of the relevant technology on my resume. I don't think these guys will necessarily know what a BSP is, I wonder if they have considered hardware that is not a PC or mobile phone? I suspect they have not ever brought an OS up on custom hardware, nor do they plan it it. I think I'd read your resume and think you're well qualified to work at a hardware company, but I'm not sure I'd want you in a google or a facebook.

Now it's an entry level job, no experience necessary, but you come in proving you what an AJAX is, and you can JQuery if you must but would rather (whatever the latest hotness is). You understand how to use Facebook and what API exists, and know what Twitter is useful for. You know their acronyms and their tools, If they turned you down then I'd cry discrimination, a true college fresh out with no industry experience really would be less qualified than you in that event, especially if you'll work for his wages.

Then say no experience required, or 1-5 years, or whatever you're looking for. That sets my salary expectations immediately, and I won't waste my time or yours applying for the position. Also, you are asking for exactly what the job requires, which is honest, and fair.

I may have 30 years of experience, but maybe at the end of my career I'm not looking to be managing a team or architecting anything, or perhaps I want to change careers and try out something new before I die, or maybe after whoring for the man for 30 years I want to spend my last years doing what I love: coding. Provided I'm interested and capable, why do you care how old I am?