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Comment by morelisp | Hacker News Reader

> the alienation of the young from messy analog physical dexterity, long low stimulus attention and slow progress

I suggest any boomers with this attitude check out what the kids are doing with Gunpla and Warhammer. It's a space issue, not a "stimulus" or "physical dexterity" one.

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At the same time modeling of "real things", except maybe RC airplanes, seems to be in a decline. For instance there don't seem to be many people into building models of ships/etc. The fantasy stuff goes a lot stronger. Kind of makes me wonder if declining social conditions have young people running to escapist fantasy stuff. Or maybe it's because the fantasy stuff is more profitable for corps thanks to trademark/copyright, so consumers follow the advertising?

I think it's hard to wrap all those hobbies up into one "reason" for the shift. One though is that kids probably see a lot less ships (in real life and film/TV) than they did 20, let alone 50, years ago. Kids will react to what they're told are cool and young adults will continue the hobby they had as kids.

That being said, the same place I buy my monster and spaceship painting equipment from seems to still do a decent trade in benders and slips.

And size is still an issue, the smallest ship I could build is about the size of the largest "miniature" I have.

You make good points about the routine shifts in influence and interest over the generations. Running with the "RC airplane" example, it's probably true that the traditional internal combustion hobby isn't picking up tons of new youth. But look at how well drones still sell for Christmas these days.

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