Knowing HTML and how to make a basic website is a great skill to have—at the least, you can be able to make simple websites with photos and text formatting to communicate with others online, and if you really get into it you have the starts of a skillset that will be useful for the future.

I started learning HTML when I was 16, because I wanted to be a “cool” webmaster/admin/mod type (POWER! MWA ha ha ha ha!). 5 years later I work at a software company as a support person and trainer because of this, and previously I got a job for a small company running their ebay business. Even if you don’t intend to go into IT or deep heavy computer stuff, you can use HTML skills in a lot of places in life; anyone who does data entry will be exposed to more and more programs that are networked through the internet, which means receptionists, secretaries, museum registrars, accountants. It’s a great skill for artists of all stripes to get their indie work out to the public for the cheapest way possible. It’s a great skill for small businesses to get the word out as well. Teachers should learn it so they can support their students by putting stuff online.

And it’s not that hard. It’s not considered a “true” programming language by a lot of geeks, which basically translates to, it’s not so difficult that you have to make blood sacrifices to the gods just to make heads or tails of it.

So really, do it. Learn HTML (the proper way, by hand in notepad, avoid Dreamweaver, Frontpage and the other WYSIWYG editors, and go to http://www.htmlgoodies.com and go through the tutorials), and also learn the basics of building a webpage. It will do you good.