In the 90's, a number of teenagers made Geocities sites, which awakened their interest in web development and taught them some basics of HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Many of these teens went on to become web developers.<p>Later, many teenagers learned these skills as they customized their LiveJournal or MySpace.<p>Later still, many teenagers learned these skills customizing their Tumblr.<p>Does Gen Z have anything like this, that is creating a pipeline to web development? I know Tumblr and LiveJournal still exist, but they don't seem to be popular with Gen Z at all.
Not a site, but it may be worth a mention anyway. Minecraft has done an incredible job getting the younger generation into coding. Creating your own server starts off fairly straightforward, but gets very technical very quickly if you allow it to. From dealing with and editing all the files needed, setting up databases needed by some plugins, setting up websites, communities and shops for your server, all the way to eventually writing your own plugins. On top of that, Redstone and Command Blocks in the vanilla game, as well as mods like ComputerCraft in the Forge world have done a lot to get people excited about tech.
Yes. We see <i>lots</i> of this on Glitch. From remixes of Heardle (the "name that tune" remix of Wordle) to more advanced apps that use Spotify's API to track how many streams different kpop groups are getting, to silly meme sites and personal pages, there are hundreds of thousands of apps and sites being built by Gen Z. It's an undersung trend because we (intentionally) don't have an algorithmic feed to amplify them into influencers that other media can consume, but there is absolutely a renaissance of the creative, personal web going on amongst Gen Z that rivals anything Gen X or Millennials did on the platforms of their day.
All my friends built customized MySpace pages back in the day, but none of them are coders now. It gave you just enough tools to make a really interesting profile, but you would quickly hit a ceiling. During the same period, I was learning HTML using Dreamweaver and Arachnophilia (a combination of WYSIWYG and IDE). So I disagree w/the premise, even if there may have been some people that kept going, I doubt that it was a large contributor to the devs we have today because if you want to start coding you will probably start with something that gives you more flexibility.
Gen Z just got here, let's not crowd them!<p>The Gen Z to programmer pipeline is getting fed with Roblox and Minecraft servers, as far as I know. I'm sure the ones who want in on web development will figure something out.
<a href="https://neocities.org/" rel="nofollow">https://neocities.org/</a> sounds like it might be what you're looking for
Older Gen Z and developer here, I don't think there was something to GeoCities or MySpace growing up, but I came up with other things that personally got me and my friends a bit into development:<p>Maybe the most popular was developing our own Discord bots, that got me first to backend with Python and JS (I think I even learned JS before HTML and CSS...).<p>Growing up we mostly learned programming in school (mostly C#, yet some friends of mine learned Mobile development in Java with Firebase in high school) it was homework mostly, nothing really came out of it.<p>I can say that gaming got us to learn a bit of networking, trying to host our own Minecraft and Maple Story servers cause we didn't have money to rent them.
<a href="https://glitch.com/" rel="nofollow">https://glitch.com/</a> seems sort of like that, the branding seems very genz to me, but who knows about actual demographics.
Having a lay-accessible domain that rewards tinkering and provides a path into a related professional domain is to a large extent an artifact of an immature technology. That was a confluence of factors at a place in time, not a natural link between youth and coding.<p>The web is more mature now for better and for worse. Professionally made commercial platforms are plentiful and varied and likely to meet most users needs. Barriers to entry are also higher for related reasons.<p>It's probably disappointing to see the path so many of us took closing up behind us, but to some extent is a normal process for a maturing profession. There aren't really accessible DIY paths to auto mechanic, aviator, architect, or lawyer either, though there once were.<p>We're not fully there yet, and the low startup costs of code will always probably leave a little more room in programming than in other fields for dedicated amateurs. But still, it's not inevitable that this exists, nor is it an anomalous failure if it doesn't.
Carrd is popular with Gen Z and IIRC does let you do full CSS customization (and some limited HTML). I haven't used it myself so I can't give you a full rundown, but some of the fancier Carrds I've seen have been really cool
It's still kind of wild to think that these platforms just accepted and displayed user entered HTML. I'm sure they did some input validations, but I can't imagine anyone wanting to run that kind of platform these days.
The apps my zoomers use don't allow the kind of profile customisation that would require them to experiment with HTML and CSS.<p>Moreover, what passes as "content creation" on platforms like TikTok or Instagram is constrained in ways that make HTML and CSS absolutely irrelevant (reuse video, add filter, add text, etc. all with the built-in tools).
<a href="https://glitch.com/" rel="nofollow">https://glitch.com/</a> is kind of like this. Back in the 90s, however, things were a lot more decentralized. Now people make something in Minecraft or make a video for TikTok when they want to have a little creative expression. Creativity has been co-opted by corps.
Another fun but short trick you can use is to show them how to edit html of websites.<p>I showed my SO's daughter this and have never seen her so engaged in HTML. I didn't expect anything to come out of it, the goal was just to prank people. But it might be all it takes to push a young person over the edge and get them on the path to more learning.
At the risk of sounding ignorant, I don’t think there is such a site that is popular among Gen Z. I’m just north of the Gen Z border, and I think I would have heard of that site by now.<p>If someone wanted to create a social media empire which gives users control over HTML and CSS, an obstacle they’d need to overcome is Gen Z’s use of phones over PCs.
Gen Z is as old as 26 this year. They were on Tumblr, Neopets, Club Penguin. If you're thinking specifically of people >23 or something, a lot of them learn some basic skills in early school, but idk about sites that allow this.
People have suggested glitch and neocities, which are probably the closest to what you’re describing, but I’d like to add a few more that are close to but not quite what you’re asking about:<p>Carrd is ubiquitous among a certain kind of zoomer, and while it’s more of a no code tool, I think it’s likely to be a gateway into web design for many, and probably the closest analogy to Tumblr customization Gen Z has.<p>And this is a bit farther afield but if you look at the popular stuff on Scratch you get the sense that a lot of young children are using it creatively, and that it will be a huge gateway into the industry in the future.
Minecraft, Discord bots, etc. have already been mentioned; I will put in a plug for Cheat Engine and piracy. Much more dangerous and less ethical toys, but still highly educational. I learned almost 100% of my pre-college networking knowledge from BitTorrent. Cheat Engine has a very high learning curve but I'm sure it has acted as a gateway to other kinds of exploitation for other people. Although, I think with the rise of kernel Anti-Cheat this is a dying practice.
Any site that they like, doesn't matter which one.<p>IME, the easiest way to get an adolescent interested in programming is to show them the browser's built-in debugger.<p>Show them how to change a style rule or make a post look like it contains arbitrary text, and they'll be hooked.
roblox.com seems popular with children:<p>"Roblox is an online game platform and game creation system . . . that allows users to program games and play games created by other users."<p>In some ways it is surprising and disappointing that HTML and CSS would be still significant to "web development" in that Justin Hall's call to arms "HTML is easy as hell"[0] was written nearly 30 years ago. The cycle promoted there is non-centralized, noncommercial and amazingly simple.<p>0. <a href="http://www.links.net/webpub/" rel="nofollow">http://www.links.net/webpub/</a>
gen z, neocities is probably the closest; webdev isn't as common of a thing anymore, but the kids who're traumatized the right way out of normal social interaction towards programming and want to do webdev over other paths end up there quite a bit
primo.so sounds like what you’re describing. It’s a FOSS low-code site builder that lets you build/publish websites built from HTML/CSS/JS (Svelte actually, but close)