11–20 of 29 posts
[1]: https://www.google.com/search?q=science+fair+60+in+one+elect...
Electronics as a hobby costs real money. Software as a hobby costs nothing --- beyond a computer which everyone already has; hobbyist or not.
I think this question is specifically about the early 80's, although I think that argument is certainly relevant today.
Nowadays, it's a bit murkier because you can use single board computers with pre-made modules for interfacing with the real world and assemble a gadget with almost no application of electronics knowledge and mostly just software.
It might have helped that I didn't have any of the latest computers and electronics in the 80s so it was empowering to see that I could make things at a similar level of technology to the old 2nd hand and cheap commercial products I had around. I remember being very disappointed with digital watches because they were so opaque having an inaccessible COB blob doing all the interesting work.
It was microprocessors and then the IBM PC that dented electronics.
Note the difference in Popular Electronics from 1976 to 1982 to 1993:
https://archive.org/details/popularelectroni10unse_3
https://archive.org/details/PopularElectronics/PopularElectr...
https://archive.org/details/PopularElectronics/PopularElectr...
Eletronics went from "components only" to "components and software" and that's much more difficult. You can't just "tinker" anymore once software enters the picture. There's an extra abstraction level that requires a lot more work with no reward to get over and that unfortunately filters a lot of people out.
And there is the limitation in what you can do with it: with a computer you can do various apps (like a notepad, phonebook), some music (Commodore 64 SID was limited, but still fun), some graphics, games etc. With electronics you can do ... how much?
And the time spent on playing games means less time to play with electronics. Time is limited.
My recollection is that electronics, the school electronics lab, and the people there, were even nerdier than the software equivalents, and also much 'stricter', already well-established and less accessible, whereas software was a new country, open for exploration, with stories in the press of kids making fortunes on video games, etc.
Also that the electronics industry was being completely taken over by the Asian economies.
Do the NAND to Tetris course and see that tech is abstractions on top of abstractions. Electronics today is frequently represented by code. Check out Verilog or VHDL.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardware_description_language
Where electronics stayed interesting is in the realm where code meets reality -> robotics and art.
Playing with LED's, robotics competitions, quad copters, cosplay. Maybe adjacent to SDR. Raspberry Pi's and Arduinos.
Check out ADAFruit: https://www.adafruit.com/
or Sparkfun: https://www.sparkfun.com/
Check out sites like: https://hackaday.com/
There is also the greater cultures: Maker culture and hacker culture. Maker Faire is super interesting and has many many attendees.
I would say that in America, it is harder to work with electronics because the number of maker spaces and places you could buy parts (RadioShack/Fry's) greatly diminished, but afluent folks can definitely have an electronics hobby supplied by online vendors.
(Disclaimer: This isn't my hobby, this is just my understanding)