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> you must must must find a place in the internet world that you can stay at (e.g. some FOSS 1990 style mailing list) and at least find some way to use social media (gnu social or G+ anyone?) in some reasonable way and have some kind of internet presence (e.g. a github page and some foss projects you supply commits to)

I'm curious why you would say this. I understand that most of the people here are coders and github or the like would be a good place to point to potential employers for work samples, but a "1990s style mailing list" isn't going to increase your visibility enough to get hired. It almost sounds like you think a presence on the internet at all is a good end in itself.

> Politics always talks about the gap between rich and poor that gets bigger and bigger. But the same is true for the gap between people who take part in the internet and use it to their advantage, and those who ignore it. Both these gaps already overlap to some degree, and that overlap will continue to grow!

I agree in part, but there is a third category that the OP hints at which is "consumers of information who don't create". Most people use Facebook, Twitter, etc. for consuming entertainment and advertising their identities, but they are not using it for any advantage. People may be able to use them to network, but most don't, and there is nothing inherently worthwhile in using social media by itself.

> a "1990s style mailing list" isn't going to increase your visibility enough to get hired

This is too limited thinking. I can't tell you what the opportunity will be, but there are opportunities if you participate pro-actively, even if you think of opportunities only as job opportunities. In percent it's probably smaller than in 1990, but in absolute numbers it has grown just like every other market around the internet and IT.

> there is a third category

Completely agreeing with that part. To some degree they are also part of these people who don't really use the internet. If you just scroll through your facebook feed and click like here and there, you are not participating. You must at least be able to answer most daily questions via google to be considered participating.

> I can't tell you what the opportunity will be, but there are opportunities if you participate pro-actively, even if you think of opportunities only as job opportunities.

I agree. However, I think it's worth noting that this is no different from any other community/social activity. You can make the same argument for being involved in churches, civic organizations, the local city council, etc. In fact this argument could be used to encourage people to give-up some of their time on the internet and become more involved in the aforementioned analog organizations.

> Now if you are 55 years old (and this guy seems to be)

I don't quite think that's the case. More like 35, by the timeline given. This isn't old-timer grumpyness, it's simply seeing something you grew up with change, while you lose your childhood naivity, and it loses its innocence. Welcome to adulthood. It ain't quite as unilaterelly great as we all pictured growing up ;)

> must must must find a place in the internet world that you can stay at

Why?

I wonder this as well, why? I believe there is life outside the internet.

*edit: At first I wrote a text that listed lots of examples, but usually people don't agree with examples that aren't close to what they have experienced. The question "why" is a really good one, and we should ask it more often.

Look around you. Are you a heavy internet user or not? How is your life comparing to the alternative? You will probably realise that the person with more internet knows more (why? how?), his opinion has more facettes (why? how?), finding things (places, translations, info, jobs) is easier for him (why? how?). And he has a much bigger world view (why? how?).

Much fun while learning by looking!

> you must must must find a place in the internet world that you can stay at

That's why it's no longer fun. It's no longer a choice, an improvement over some baseline. It's an obligation.