Little phone junkies

I'm not making excuses for myself--okay maybe I am--but there are perfectly good reasons why I'm a geek today.

You see, when I was 13, a family friend gave me a state-of-the-art PC.

"It's an AT286," I vaguely remember him saying, as the screen lit up and the words "American Megatrends" flashed across. "It's one of the fastest PCs right now."

Indeed, it was. It ran at a blazing 16 megahertz and was equipped with 8 whole megabytes of memory. A 14-inch monitor, capable of four shades of green, stood astride.

AT286--it became a personal mantra.

One friend: "I hear you have a computer?"

"Yeah. It's an AT286."

Another friend: "What did you do yesterday?"

"Oh, I played Archon on my AT286."

It was great fun. But as the years went by, a VGA monitor replaced the monochrome, a modest hard disk took up residence, and in time, even the AT286 had to go, making way for a 486DX.

Looking back, my first PC was pretty primitive. But it was an AT286, and it was my first taste of geek nirvana.

SO I GREW UP in a mediated, multimedia, and interactive environment. Once I got acquainted with the PC, the world of books no longer held as much charm as before. These days, I still read a lot, but most of my best reading--and some of my best writing--is done standing up on the MRT.

The blare of the train as it hurtles through the tunnels, the myriad of strange faces all around, and the uncertain footing all help to keep my senses occupied and happy.

On occasions when I've worked with youths, I've noticed the same phenomenon. Bright kids who grow up among computers and game consoles find it hard to hover over thick textbooks with less color than my old monochrome.

We crave sensory overload.

WHAT HAS THIS got to do with cell phones anyway? Plenty.

A good part of my formative years was spent in front of the PC, and it has shaped my perception and world view in many ways. What becomes of the current generation so deeply immersed in mobile phones?

I've had parents tell me their children, who cannot yet run without tumbling, pick up phones and start snapping pictures without any instruction. When my four-year-old nephew is feeling moody, he sulks and is as immovable as a rock. But whip out a camera-phone and his eyes light up, and he ambles over.

When these kids become adults, they will probably embrace technology more completely than I have. They will grok mobility. To those accustomed to being tethered to a PC, the mobile phone is a convenience. To them, it will be different. The mobile phone will become a way of life; the PC is the inconvenience.

Perhaps then office spaces will become obsolete. For they will rebel against the physical shackles. They'll be the restless ones, constantly yearning for greater stimulation. The defining technology for them may well be nanoscience, which threatens to shrink electronics to miniscule sizes and make them truly portable.

The lumbering education system will struggle to keep pace with the pulse of the children. But in 10 to 20 years, when they become the kings of our consumerist society, you can bet the nimble market will reinvent itself to suit their needs.

How did your obsession with technology begin? What do you expect to see from mobile junior? Tell me what you think!