I missed the heyday of computing, but I was a kid in the 1990's and still remember going to radio shack to get resistors. I think as we grew out of it, that enthusiast market never really got replenished. My wife has two much younger siblings (13-14) and it's actually kind of surprising how they're less computer literate than we are (30-31). They use Snapchat and whatnot, but don't even know how to make more complicated search queries in Google.
Little bit nostalgic about the BK though. My first real computer was a Tandy we bought at RadioShack: https://parasomia.wordpress.com/2010/03/14/the-tandy-sensati.... I'm pretty much the guy in the article. Eventually maxed it out with 16MB of RAM, a 1.2GB HDD, and Win95.
I don't think you can draw too many conclusions based on those observations. The fact you're posting on Hacker News makes you atypical for your generation.
Look at people like Palmer Luckey. He revived VR and kick started an entire industry from his parents garage when he was 18.
I think we're in living in a pretty amazing time for computing. We're still figuring out what the next wave of computing will look like. Programmers can bootstrap apps and games that reach millions of people without breaking a sweat. Programming is more accessible than ever. I'd chose today over the 80's in a heartbeat.
Little bit nostalgic about the BK though. My first real computer was a Tandy we bought at RadioShack: https://parasomia.wordpress.com/2010/03/14/the-tandy-sensati.... I'm pretty much the guy in the article. Eventually maxed it out with 16MB of RAM, a 1.2GB HDD, and Win95.