Programming or Web Development?

I have a strong passion for programming and web development and want to do one of them as a proffession though I cannot decide which to go to college for. Which would be the better field to go into with the economy? Also which presents more job oppurtunities? What would I major/minor in for both? Note that I like both equally and want to spend my life doing one of the two. Thanks for everyones input!Programming or Web Development?
Do both. They tie into each other and you will be much more valuable if you are proficient in both fields. I know very few web developers who don't know programming.Programming or Web Development?
It depends on whether you're defining Web Development as something like Web Design (Photoshop, Illustrator, HTML, CSS, etc) or whether you're defining it as something more like Software Developer who happens to work with web technologies.





The former...well, you're up against every wannabe ';designer'; who has a cracked copy of photoshop and thinks marquee tags are the pinnacle of web design. It can be hard to get out of that herd initially and get the requisite professional experience for people to take you seriously.





The latter? Well, that's what I do. I have a degree in Information Technology (with a Philosophy minor) from Mizzou and it's served me really well. I got hired from the strength of my capstone project and I've been gaining momentum ever since. I've been unaffected by the economy - I still get headhunters contacting me about positions such that even in these times, I'm able to be picky.





The good news is that the previously disparate arts of Programming for the web and Programming desktop applications are converging as the web/desktop boundary becomes increasingly blurred. Whatever you choose, you stand a good chance of crossing over to the other side at some point.





Right now, job opportunities are just about equal for both. However, we're in a time when there's still a lot of self-styled ';web developers'; whose education consisted entirely of reading a chapter of PHP for Dummies in 2003. You will want to make your degree count - it's the one thing that will help break you out of that crowd.





I think that saying you want to ';spend your life'; doing one of these two things is quite a big statement. It's the nature of technologies to change, so if there's something specific you like about programming/web development right now, keep in mind that 10 years from now things might be completely different and you might not like it so much. I'm just saying - be open to change regardless of what you choose and be ready to accept that whatever path you take initially when you start may be far removed from the path you end up on a few decades from now.