I do quite enjoy when non-hams hop on the Internet to try and criticize ham radio.

> The average age is like 60-70 usually

I can't find any statistics on the average age among all amateur radio license holders. Wikipedia says the average age is 68, but that is marked with a [citation needed] because it doesn't point to a source. Whoever wrote that likely got it from the ARRL which declared that the average age of their membership is 68. Not all hams, and perhaps not even the majority of hams, are members of ARRL. In the same way that not all licensed gun owners are members of the NRA.

In rural areas, you may find the local ham radio club is a clique of 5 or 6 older guys who have known each other for several decades and aren't too welcoming to newcomers. But more urban areas are a completely different story. Where I live, the local university has a ham club operated by college students. There is a community club that certainly _trends_ toward older engineer retirees, but actually has members of all ages, ethnicities, and technical background. And they are all a pretty friendly bunch.

There are online clubs and communities for various demographics as well. (And an uncountable number of discords for some reason.)

> the government kept lowering the requirements to get a license and it's even less popular.

The only ones saying that are YouTubers and clickbait SEO-encumbered blogspam. There are more amateur radio license holders now than there have ever been. http://ah0a.org/FCC/Graphs.html

> I heard they're usually mostly benchmarking distance and truckers listening.

You must have heard wrong? I don't know what "benchmarking distance" means, and while there _are_ truckers that are hams and sometimes talk while they drive, IME there are not many. Certainly not enough to be a notable chunk of local ham radio activity.

> Besides apocalypse or maybe wanting to tunnel data through it (illegal) it doesn't seem to serve a real function or benefit.

You could ask the FCC, the ones who license and regulate the service? https://www.fcc.gov/wireless/bureau-divisions/mobility-divis... "The amateur radio ... services are for qualified persons of any age who are interested in radio technique solely with a personal aim and without pecuniary interest. These services present an opportunity for self-training, intercommunication, and technical investigations."

In short, amateur radio is set of spectrum set aside for hobbyists to practice and experiment with radio. Amateur radio can be and has been used to coordinate communication in areas stricken by disaster when other services were down, but it is NOT an "emergency radio" service, no matter what the preppers say.

Encryption on the ham bands is forbidden for a very good reason: ham radio activities are public, open, and are not a substitute for commercial or ISM bands. You don't need encryption in order to experiment with radio. It's a different layer, completely orthogonal. The only narrow acceptable use related to cryptography is authorization of control messages to repeaters, RC aircraft, and such. In that case, you are not obscuring the meaning of the message, you are simply proving that you are the rightful controller of the device.

> Family radio and the public channels I heard are full of useless chatter and insults,

FRS and CB radio are not ham radio, full stop.

I have never seen a single community anywhere in real life or on the Internet that didn't have the occasional asshat or two. Although a few hams can be idiots, as in any community, the majority are quite respectful and friendly.

> I can't imagine radio being any better than the internet besides the idea of broadcasting data on it which the government doesn't like.

As mentioned before, you're missing the purpose and spirit of amateur radio. It's not "free and libre wireless communication for the masses." The spectrum was originally set aside by the FCC at a time when amateurs were making more progress on the state of the art of radio technology on their kitchen tables than radio manufacturers with whole labs. Not as relevant today perhaps, but it's a miracle that we still have that spectrum available to us when these frequencies are so highly coveted by HFTs, ISPs, and mobile phone operators.

Broadcasting on amateur radio is not allowed, because there are already FCC-licensed services for broadcasting over radio. Some people think that broadcasting over amateur radio should be allowed because they don't like the FCC's policies on the broadcast bands but that's some pretty backwards thinking, if you ask me. Nobody stumps for broadcast rights on FRS, GRMS, CB, or marine bands for some reason. It's only the amateur radio service where this is ever even suggested as a possibility, generally by people who don't understand what the service is for.