Personally, I think 5 year olds like stickers more.
Typically a 5 year old is learning and engaging with the world and is fascinated by all things shiny and brightly coloured. The fun nature of stickers targeted at that age group are designed (maybe with vivid colours and friendly looking anthropomorphic characters) to make them happy, or to give them a sense of adventure.
In contrast, I might argue that software developers use stickers to express their preferences and/or skills, rather than for their aesthetic quality. The Octocat may be friendly looking, but I don't think a typical software developer would stick one to their laptop because it makes them happy when looking at it. I think it'd be fairly rare for a software developer to stick a giant Octocat (or Docker whale, or other) poster up in their room; whereas it'd be fairly typical for a 5 year old to stick up a poster of their favourite cartoon character.
In summary, I think the two groups like stickers for different reasons, but I would argue that the 5 year olds enjoy the stickers more.
Thank you for the detailed and thoughtful comments.
So it's more that 5 year olds like the stickers, while software developers like what the stickers represent. And possibly also a bit of 5 year olds enjoying stickers for themselves, while software developers might also be using them as signals to others.
5 year old: "Hey, this is a cool puppy sticker."
Software developer: "I like [insert favorite tech here]. And I want you to know."
Personally, I think 5 year olds like stickers more.
Typically a 5 year old is learning and engaging with the world and is fascinated by all things shiny and brightly coloured. The fun nature of stickers targeted at that age group are designed (maybe with vivid colours and friendly looking anthropomorphic characters) to make them happy, or to give them a sense of adventure.
In contrast, I might argue that software developers use stickers to express their preferences and/or skills, rather than for their aesthetic quality. The Octocat may be friendly looking, but I don't think a typical software developer would stick one to their laptop because it makes them happy when looking at it. I think it'd be fairly rare for a software developer to stick a giant Octocat (or Docker whale, or other) poster up in their room; whereas it'd be fairly typical for a 5 year old to stick up a poster of their favourite cartoon character.
In summary, I think the two groups like stickers for different reasons, but I would argue that the 5 year olds enjoy the stickers more.
Thank you for the detailed and thoughtful comments.
So it's more that 5 year olds like the stickers, while software developers like what the stickers represent. And possibly also a bit of 5 year olds enjoying stickers for themselves, while software developers might also be using them as signals to others.
5 year old: "Hey, this is a cool puppy sticker."
Software developer: "I like [insert favorite tech here]. And I want you to know."
Now that you mention it, I'm thinking that some new tech is going to choose a puppy as their mascot :)