I feel for the young today, because I know what I went through.
I tihnk it's going to take more determination for my generation (well, I'm 29 so still consider myslef young!) to learn music properly. These days, with the progress of technology, it's easy for people like me with no training to buy a computer, get software and some sample libraries and try and pass themselves off as a compser (hehe).
Whilst it opens things up to a whole new (and potentially experimental) world of music, and allows people with creativity but no musical academia to get involved or try and express themselves through music, there is a danger that we could actually halt the progression of music more than we actually take it forward. And it's exactly because a lot of us simply don't understand music the same way the traditionalsts do. And how can we progress music without understanding it? I really don't want to see a world of drum loops and samples (I don't mean VSL type samples mind!) because no one took the time to study music anymore!
The only use I see of ignorance of musical academia is that you don't restrict yourself because of musical rules. But then surely not knowing the rules in the first place is more restrictive, because you never really know what you're doing! And without knowing the rules, you're more likely to be ticking the boxes of everything obvious and 'done before', because had you spent the time with your head in a theory book rather than a software manual, you'd have realised everyone else has already done what you have - only they did it years ago. you just didn't know [:)].
So I'm reading books and trying to learn, though I am doing it with an element of trepidation, because I kind of like the freedom of just having ideas and doing it and not wondering what the right or wrong method or approach should be. And because I don't know anything about key signatures or scales, sometimes I'll hit a couple of bum notes which I possibly wouldn't have done had I been more disciplined. And I'll keep them because actually, it works sometimes.