Yeah, **I** have a theory! YOURS is wrong. "social mobility" problems doesn't indicate a cause, but a SYMPTOM!
I didn't become as I did to fit the world, the WORLD changed to fit me! When I was a kid, computers were like a rumor and myth like they had been for over 40 years before! I don't know when my father started working with computers, but it was apparently after I was 2, and by then he was basically out of my life. I didn't see a computer until I was perhaps 10. It wasn't even one of those hobbyist computers. The ONLY stereotypically computer feature it had was tape drives. So how did it affect me? NOT AT ALL!
More complex financial product options? MOST only dealt with stocks, and maybe mutual funds, and it was like buying a car. NO DIFFERENT than it had been for over a hundred years prior(Except you did have cars and phones) As for TV controllers? My FATHER had an expensive console, and IT had a remote control. Again, I got little use of that. WOW, PUSH BUTTONS! Other than that, NO DIFFERENCE! REMEMBER, when I was a kid perhaps every TV channel was switched by a ROTARY control.
So lets see how my "physical" interests developed.....
About 3 or so I was definitely watching TV and asking people about a lot of physical services. I also got interested in electricity.(Level was known for decades)
About 5 or so I worked with wood and electronics.(Wood was very old, electronics probably 10 or so years.)
About 6 or so I worked with metal(metal is very old too.)
BTW I didn't even THINK about getting into computers until I was 8. Radio Electronics(as I recall that was the magazine) featured a computer. Computers basically just came out. WOW, I saw my FIRST computer schematic. NEAT! And did YOU know that it was easier to build a computer than a radio?????
I didn't even really start to study computers until I was about 16. REMEMBER, computers were kind of limited, relatively expensive, and the M/S Windows and the IBMPC didn't exist yet. Microsoft only made their basic.
Steve