Context
asked 10-year-old Brett Andrews—a cyberyouth if ever there was one—to explain
how he uses computers and how he thinks about them.
We were borrowing an idea from Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, who said in an interview for
last winter's premiere issue of Context that he tests new products on college
campuses. He says campuses are so wired, and students so comfortable with technology, that
he can get a sense of how the broader market will react to the products a few years out.
We at Context think it's important to talk to students—even as young as
10—to get a sense of the attitudes that will come to pervade the on-line world. As
you'll see in what follows, at least two lessons come through.
First, there is no fear of computers—and no tolerance of problems with them, either.
Those of us who came to computers later in life have been taught for much of the past 15
years that we need to become computer-literate, which was really just a way of saying that
we should adapt ourselves to our computers' foibles. But 10-year-olds know better. If one
tries to buy something from you and finds your Web site unhelpful, he may just move on.
Second, if you want to get the attention of a 10-year-old—or of the consumer he will
become over the next couple of decades—you're going to have to work for it.
He uses loads of well-designed, slick-looking products, so he sets the bar very high for
anything he's going to do with a computer.
As John Perry Barlow says, those younger than 25 are natives of cyberspace. The rest of us
are immigrants. So we have to struggle to understand the attitudes that are shaping the
increasingly wired world.
I'm a computer kid. It seems to me like there have been computers everywhere, ever since I
was born. My Dad once said he couldn't imagine life before television. That's how I feel
about computers.
I got started with computers early on because Dad was using computers in his work. When I
was very young, my Dad let me sit on his lap while I watched him type. Every once in a
while, I would press a key. Sometimes this made my Dad crazy, but I still had lots of fun.
I can't even remember the first game I played because I started so early on. I do remember
a program called Reader Rabbit. I was in kindergarten at the time and was just learning
how to read. The program taught me different sounds and words, and I learned to read very
quickly. We got a joystick when Dad bought a flight simulator. When we tried to install
this program, I learned about how a computer crashes.After that, we bought another flight
simulator, and that really got me started on computer games. In kindergarten, I played
Battle Chess. I didn't know how to play chess. When Dad showed me the game, though, I was
mesmerized. I loved the way that the pieces fought. In 3D mode, the game showed animations
of how the different pieces worked together or battled. I learned how to play chess.
My first on-line experience wasn't very good. My teacher had me do research on cranes (the
birds). Do you know how many sites there are on cranes that make no sense at all? After
that experience, I got wiser.
I learned that there are little icons that you can collect if you find a site you like.
You can also trade icons to people for other icons that may be useful. In fourth grade, it
was icon-trading mania!
Nowadays, I look up on the Internet the value of the Star Wars cards that I collect. That
way, it's not likely that someone will cheat me in a trade. I also use the Internet for
e-mail. I did this article by e-mailing back and forth with Dad.
If I could design computers, I would make it so that the computer came with a built-in
crash-detection system that never failed because it's so annoying when you're in the
middle of a cool game and you're about to get to the next level and the computer crashes.
I would also make it so that all the games would run on the computer. That way, when I buy
a game, I wouldn't have to worry about making sure I have a 3D accelerator or the right
kind of sound card. I would also make all of the Sony PlayStation and Nintendo 64 games
compatible with the computer. The last thing I would do would be a filter for searching on
the Internet. That way I wouldn't get 10 billion sites that make no sense.
Dad and I are very different when it comes to computers. Dad knows a lot more than I do
about computers, but he uses them almost all for work. He goes on-line and reads the Wall
Street Journal. I think that is a stupid way to use computers. He has his own laptop,
which I envy. But all he ever does is type messages to his buddies at work. I mean, why
read the newspaper and have your own laptop with no games when you can download demos of
all sorts of cool new games and play them on your laptop?
Sometimes Dad's computer will crash, and he'll get frustrated. Then he gets mad and
doesn't come out for dinner, which makes Mom mad.
The thing I find funny, though, is that while all three boys in my family (my brother,
Dad, and me) like to use the computer, Mom is the opposite. I mean, she has a Ph.D. from
Harvard, but she avoids the computer whenever she can. The only program she uses is
Quicken, which helps her with taxes and other financial things. Dad, on the other hand, is
practically a child. He loves to play with my brother and me on the computer.
I think that sooner or later even Mom will begin to like computers because computers are
becoming more and more popular all over. When my Mom starts to use computers more,
everyone will know that computers have taken over everything.
Brett Andrews is in the fifth grade in Concord, Mass. He is reachable through Context.
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