The Trouble with Kids These Days
And industry under attack, from those who will inherit it.
I know I’m not one to complain about the “young’ns” of the web design and development world. I mean I like to think of myself as a crotchety old man but at the ripe age of 20 I’m nowhere near old. But regardless of my age, here comes a rant about the “young’ns”.
I think it’s a great industry to be in with the wealth of information that can be found on the internet to help you advance your knowledge. Forums, tutorials, open-source. There are a number of methods in which to learn something new. And with such a dynamic industry you have to keep learning. No matter how experienced you are, you’re never 100% safe with just what you already know.
But then with that said I think there is a distinct lack of morality in some of the people who are trying to get their start in the industry. People who take that tutorial that they found on a popular site and use the outcome of the tutorial to claim their skill. Or maybe they just take someone else who has a nice looking website and blatantly rip or closely mimic the design and call it their own creation.
With the number of people I see who use these rips / tutorial works it’s no question why some people have a very poor image of the web design and development world. They see us as a whole based upon those newbies who have no respect or knowledge of how things really work. The common assumption is that the people who do this are young teens (12 – 14) who are carrying out the acts, while I think this might be a majority (but I can’t say with certainty) but it is not an absolute. People of all ages rip designs and lie about their skill level.
It’s something I think the web community as a whole needs to try and get a hold on, but it isn’t realistic to expect it ever really coming to be. We need to improve the visibility of the professionals above the hobbyists who are giving us a bad name. Not to say all hobbyists are bad, just the bad ones are bad.