Signal to Noise

I’m recalling how the use of computers and networking systems used to be fun for me. Though I’ve been a systems engineer for years now (my first I.T. job began in 1994), and I’ve always spent 8-to-10 hour days wading in the aural whir of a server room or debugging a script or troubleshooting some botched IP routes, there was a time when I actually thought this stuff was fun, and even brought my work home with me.

I even used information technology as a hobby, as far back as the early 90s, booting up my Amiga and racing to get online to check BBS e-mail. For a while, like many of my fellow nerds-in-arms, I even ‘ran my own Linux server’ for a few years–hosting my own web site vis a vis DynDNS and working until 4 a.m. on Perl scripts that accomplished things that would later be capitalized by the likes of Google and Microsoft. My “Great ideas” were born and died on the whim of my tech habit, as I’m sure they are for many script kiddies and code junkies. Just a few years ago, I’d be crouched over my TiBook like a zombie pouring over RealBASIC working on cross-platform business apps. All for fun. All as a hobby.
Heck, I even enjoyed late-night Mountain Dew and Quake deathmatches on the Net, or incessantly repeating “Act IV runs” on Diablo II. Gaming was as much a part of the fun as anything. Of course, my World of Warcraft stint lasted only for about a year and ended when I lost my favorite playing buddy. And with that loss, the fun of computing–the idea of actually looking forward to interacting with the Net, the great global medium–was gone for me.

Part of this probably has to do with the fact that I now run a company which profitably exercises all of disciplines I used to consider hobby activities. So now, instead of being fun, it’s work. Granted, I love what I do and I’m humbled every day by the fact that I can make money doing what I considered to be fun, even leisurely, activities. Still, something has gone from the experience, and I can’t quite put my thumb on it.

Maybe I’m growing up.

Or maybe the pervasive nature of Internet Media has taken the exclusive feeling away. I was reminded by this when I went on a date recently. The young lady I went out with was telling me how she was into YouTube, and how she was into Rhapsody and even missed the now-defunct WinMX. Now mind you, this a good-looking, hip girl who doesn’t have an ounce of nerd in her body, but she’s digging her video iPod and has gearlust for an Archos media unit. So as she’s telling me all this, I’m wondering, “Where were girls like this when I was in high school?”

Could it be I’m seeing hints of the gap between GenX (me) and Say Everything (her)? I mean she’s only about four years younger than I, but her enthusiasm for ‘fun technology’ still strikes me as odd. GenX girls who dig tech are overt nerds, while Say Everything girls who dig tech are considered the norm? Not sure. I’m not even sure she’s a Say Everything girl by virtue of the fact she doesn’t blog and her MySpace profile is private.
But one thing is sure–I’m trying to figure out why computing isn’t as fun as it once was for me personally. And I’ve boiled it down to this: the newness has worn off. The lustre of exclusivity has faded as all this fun tech is now mainstream, consumed by a social consciousness that is a thousand percent more conversant in code and networking than it was a decade ago. People are sounding off on video blogs and using tech that would’ve been considered too difficult or too marginalized a few years back. Second Life chicks are doing 3D modeling and object-oriented development. You used to have to go to school for this stuff. Now, in 2007, it’s just what people do.