All that comes to mind is how people who displayed deep technical knowledge online, back in the 90's, were often misanthropic, tactless stereotypes who loved hacking because they wanted power.

To the extent that people who are now in their 30's and 40's "learned computers", it was mostly to get the printer working, load a game or bypass school security. Young people today do the same things, just using slightly different mediums. If you started earlier you might have learned more about your 8-bit micro's hardware, if you started later, more about servers and 3D graphics. It's just stuff.