Every programming language is an abstraction layer between the bare machine and the human thought process. In some languages this layer is thicker than in others: in Assembler it is very thin (almost nonexistent) and in highly abstracted languages like Oberon it is very thick.

Both these concepts have up- and downsides: the thinner the abstraction layer is the more you are in contact with the real workings of the system. You have more to do and more things to observe but get to utilize the machine to its fullest capacity. The thicker this layer is the less you have to observe and the less you have to know about the real machine as you work against an abstracted (and simplified) concept of the system, but on the other hand the less efficient your code will be. All programming languages are tradeoffs in this respect (and some other areas).

The last 50 years saw a whole lot of programming paradigms: structured programming, object orientation, data-centered programming, and whatnot. Basically, all these paradigms are ways to help the programmer keep his code as organized and understandable (=> maintainable) as possible. There are good reasons to employ any of them and good reasons why to avoid them. For every paradigm i could write a demo program where it looks bad and another where it seems the natural thing to do.

Do the sensible thing: learn to program with an emphasis on algorithms, not on programming methods. It is like with (human) languages: if you know how to organize your thoughts well and how to express what you mean without any margin of error you will be able to transport that capability into any language, regardless how little you speak it. But if you know five different languages but have difficulties phrasing a simple fact your communication attempts will fail in any language.

It is not very popular nowadays, but i even suggest to start learning Assembler before anything else: only knowing in-depth how a system works will let you appreciated what a compiler does for you and knowing how to program in a structured language (C) will make you appreciate what a C++-compiler does in addition to a C-compiler once you switch from C to C++. There is a reason why Donald Knuth (my personal programming hero) developed his own virtual Assembly language for a hypothetical system for his book "The Art of Computer Programming".

I hope this helps.

bakunin