The Out of Touch Adults' Guide to Kid Culture: What Does 'Code Rot' Mean?
This week's Out-of-Touch guide takes a look at a phenomena that's probably going to define the lives of generations of young people: Code rot—both actual computer-style code rot, and the more elusive cultural kind. I'm also taking a look at the fake controversy over the "cancellation" of Freddy Krueger, and finally, bringing things home with viral videos of boyfriends dancing. What does "code rot" mean? Expect to hear young people talking about code rot for awhile, maybe for the rest of their lives. It's a concept that's going to affect them more than any previous generation. Code rot, or software rot, describes what happens to a computer program when the hardware and operating system it runs on advance. If older programs aren't updated, they become less stable and glitchy until they eventually become unusable. The idea of code rot has really caught on in the young people's popular imagination, probably because they're going to spend ...
