Are Electronics Hobbyists Declining or Just Moving from Forums to Online Resources?

Just wondering about something that @dave_g said in another topic - that the number of hobbyists is dwindling.

Is
it that the number is dwindling, or that hobbyists now just use Google
to find the answer to their questions rather than post a question in a
forum?

For me personally, I rarely look at my books
(information or reference) these days and just type what I want into a
search engine.

With the advent of PICs and Arduino etc and
the vast array of project articles listed on the net, I'm wondering if
people are just becoming more self-sufficient. This would explain why
magazines and some forums are in decline, whilst the net is awash with
DIY projects and parts suppliers using mail order / Ebay / Aliexpress
etc. all of which seem to be doing a roaring trade.
Also if you
look at some of the more technical YouTube channels and the number of
followers they have and how 3D printing and small CNC mill type machines
have taken off, people are certainly interested and are making "stuff".


Maybe it's just wishful thinking on my behalf.

Joe

Joe / Alan - this is a question I have given a lot of thought to in recent years.  I think the answer lies somewhere in between,  yes, the number of electronic hobbyists IS dwindling BUT not as much as we think.  
Alan will be in a better position to comment on magazine popularity, but here in Australia we  have jjust seen the launch of a new electronics magazine (Diyode) which seems to be doing well.  They do projects like a do-it-yourself photo booth, with a Raspberry Pi, a camera, a screen and a bit of software, and while the wiring diagram is dead simple, the project is actually fairly sophisticated.The other factor here is as you surmise, the internet.  Whereas 40 years ago, data books were like gold and highly prized, these days hardly anyone bothers with them, you can google jsut about anything and get a data sheet for it in seconds. And there are many sites with designs (some of them pretty questionable I'll admit) but you'll easily find a starting point for almost anything you want to do.I lament the passing of simple analog design, but really these days the Arduino and Raspberry Pi are to today's makers what transistors and resistors and capacitors were to me in my youth (and, dare I admit it, valves (tubes)   And as above, today's makers come up with some pretty good stuff using them.I do translations of technical articles and just this week I had one for solar powering a WiFi repeater.  Without giving too much away, the guy had a simple analogue circuit with comparators for most routers (there was a need to switch them on and off automatically) but for some models of router some clever sequencing was required and he had designed another version with small microcontrollers for that.  You just fitted the uCs if you needed them, otherwise just built the analogue version.  Very clever.So I don't think there is a great deal of concern.

David, I agree, today it would be unrewarding for hobbyists or makers
to struggle at component level when so much more can now be achieved
with ready-made modules. Many will probably only want to get involved
with discrete electronics for I/O interfacing.We have the first
generation that has never known life without the Internet, and Pi,
Arduino will come as second nature to them. I was invited to a
University at end of semester when students presented their final year
projects, and I was astonished at the level of technology and
understanding being demonstrated by young twenty-somethings. The sad
thing is that half of them then go to the USA!So the hobby's changed
a lot, and there is also more (pocket) money and more competition for
it than there ever was in my day. I feel very old!

I agree with David -- the answer is a bit of "yes" and a bit of "no" (I'm assuming we are talking about electronics hobbyists here -- not knitting or quilting or things of that ilk
When I was a lad in the early/mid-1970s, a lot of my friends were hobbyists -- at that time it was oftentimes cheaper to make things than to buy them (you could make a Heathkit Color TV for way less than a shop-bought model).
As the years went by and hobby magazines started to shut down, I started to fear that no one was making things much anymore -- then -- suddenly -- in the early 2000s -- the Maker movement sprang up -- and things like the Arduino arrived -- and now it seems that people are making things everywhere I look.
Take a look at this binary counter formed from Meccano, for example https://youtu.be/KZAweJG5tpw

HiDue to work commitments I travel extensively and can't always find time to access the forum(s). However I do at times have "downtime" and during such I visit the forums. I have just now finally ploughed my way through the archives of the old EPE forum and what a treasure trove of knowledge it is.
I hope that it stays "live" for a long time as it is an enjoyable place.From the archives you can see a dramatic decrease in forum traffic in recent years and I too think that is due to the ease of search engines rather than a total demise in interest.If I need to know the answer to such and such, I can get an instant reply using a search engine and take things from there.  A message in the forum may not be so instant.In saying that though, where I think forums are great is when asking general questions, opinions or even "I'm stuck".  I thought the EPE forum had more of a "club" feel to it. You knew people were there to help when required.EE seems a nice new home.Regards

@ Chip Fryer Thanks for visiting and taking a look round EEWeb. It's maybe true that the pace here is a bit more measured than was the case on the EPE Chat Zone forum, but there's a wider variety of skills and abilities here and it's hoped that answers to readers' thorny problems will still be forthcoming. It's better structured and there's a wider variety of material on show, so hopefully there's something to appeal to everyone, no matter what their level of expertise is.
The legacy forum is planned to switch to 'read only' at the end of November.  I note some users are still posting there and I'm hoping some topics will migrate over here as a matter of course. However it's down to users themselves to decide whether or not they want to join us on EEWeb. I hope they will at least give it a go.
Thanks for your interest!Alan W