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Confession Of A C0dez Kid

Accepted submission by Phoenix666 at 2015-11-16 14:53:44
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What seems like a long time period at age thirteen seems significantly shorter when you’re over double that age. With that in mind, the entire “hacker phenomenon” should be viewed as an extreme bit of ephemera, the result of a naive convergence between technology and what can be stereotyped as 1980’s teenage angst and rebellion. The “hacker kid” made famous in every 1980’s movie became (in a matter that Jean Baudrillard would be proud of) not only a reflection of ourselves, but an ideal we aspired to as well… and was really only a viable archetype for less than ten years. This should be kept in mind by any third-party who’s attempting to put this scene in some sort of historical perspective. While there might be “hackers” in some sense even in the new millennium, this file specifically relates experiences of those of us who saw John Hughes movies at an actual movie theater back in the 80’s. (“Hackers” generally meaning self-described phone phreaks and those who obtained unauthorized access to corporate computer networks, not just people good with computers).

These ramblings were inspired by my recent discovery of some old BBS buffers and text files I had booted up on my old Apple IIe while recently visiting my parents’ house. Luckily (or unluckily) for you, I have a near-photographic memory of all of these events. (Too bad my post-high school years are rather hazy…) ;)

This surely has thousands of corollaries from around the country. My question is: where are you all now? [readtext.org]


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