Photo by Luke Porter on Unsplash

disclaimer: this is based on my opinion

Over the last couple of years, I've been seeing a lot of young YouTubers (-20 y/o) creating videos about how they made thousands of dollars online. Now that I joined dev.to I'm seeing that there are a lot of young (13, 14, 15 y/o's) web developers that are emerging and asking about freelancing and making money.

I have no issue with kids learning to code, I actually encourage it. But my main concern is that they are way too young to be worrying about the financial aspect of the field. Most of them only know the basics of web development but are trying to make a fortune by freelancing. When I was 12 y/o my concerns were about winning games and my grades, nowadays their concerns are about making money as fast as possible.

Now, I am no expert in psychology, but I'm seeing on every social media platform that there are a bunch of young people that have some sort of mental illness, either depression or whatever. And I'm starting to think that there is a connection between their priorities to act like grown-ups before their age and their mental wellness. Kids should enjoy the simple things in life and learn, not worrying about making a fortune and be financially independent at the age of 15.

My questions to us adults (+18):

• What do you think about this new trend of kids trying to make money from an early age, and worrying about all sorts of problems they cannot solve as youngsters?
• What advice do you have for the upcoming generation?

My questions to the young devs (-18):

• What is your motivation to dive into the tech world and what is your ultimate goal?

I really want to hear your thoughts on this topic, it's something that has been bothering me for a while now. Let's have a healthy discussion about it.