In Continuum.

Cigarette Puffing Baby

I think it was last weekend,and i must say it was totally out of impulse.I dont think taking a bus all the way down to town just to have a cup of coffee after buying a bunch of books is a waste of time,Kenneth.I did that really out of impulse last weekend,and i remember reading(or trying to read)The Moviegoer by Walker Percy on the bus,which was making its way down CTE to town.I used the word "Trying",not just because the book was going nowhere in its plot,but also because of this little rascal before me,taking photographs away with his handphone.

He couldnt have been more than eight,and there he was sitting in front of me taking picture of everything that went past the bus,everything that was on the bus,everything that existed i presume.I was on the seat facing the rest of the bus,and he was right in front of me,supposedly minding his own business but irritating the hell out of me by doing so.I have no grudges against kids pissing me off,because they usually do.But it was just wondering just what the hell he was trying to do,snapping away pictures at that kind of frequency.

But really,it is the 'phenomenon' of kids using handphones in general that got me really confused.I post frequently over at this forum,and my avatar there is a baby puffing on a cigarette.While everybody knows that that is probably just a photoshopped effort by some extremely bored individual,i think that might just be the case in thirty,forty years down the road.

Okay,perhaps not smoking.But you know,just remembering what you were doing when you were eight years old,and what the kids are doing now at that very same age.You see this drastic contrast in the things they like,the things they watch,the things they listen to.Okay,maybe not the things they listen to.Anyway,i dont even remember knowing what 'internet' is,or the idea of owning a handphone is as good as owning a personal 747.It wasnt something within my grasp,or something that couldve been imagined as,'Part of Me',if you know what i mean.

Allow me then,to give you a little mental picture on what i was like when i was eight years old.I mustve been in Primary Two then,and i dont think electronic gadgets were something that interested me a whole lot.I think Nintendo 64 Bit was the in thing then.Remember those consoles where you have to insert gigantic game cartridges?Yeah,those consoles and cartridges doubled as self-defensive weapons against house burglaries,because they were so bloody huge,slamming them down on any human's skull was bound to cause detrimental effects.Anyway,those were the in-things at that time,and i dont even remember getting very hooked up with it.Sure,i had one at home.But i guess it mustve been because i never got my hands around Sonic,never completed the game simply because i kept getting myself into a bunch of bloody spikes,losing all the gold rings and stuff.

In school,the common entertainment werent Digimon or Tamagotchi yet.At that time we were rather primitive in terms of childish entertainments.It sorted of reminded my parents of their old school days,when entertainments were strictly restricted to what the environment provided,or the tools in the games were dictated by what the fifty cent coin in your back pocket allows you to buy.I think back then it was either catching or hopscotch,that is if you are running low on money,and had nothing else at hand to play with.Those were the so-called 'economical' games we played at recess.Noticed how electronic gadgets are not involved here.

Then there are the slightly more expensive entertainment.These costs money,and the richer kids in class were able to afford.I think that was the point in my life,when i first got involved in some forms of gambling.Remember those erasers?They used to sell those in the school bookshop,a box of erasers with flags of different countries on them.Some people bought them as part of a sort of collection,like stamps.While others used them to gamble with each other.Point of the game: To get your eraser on top of your opponent's eraser.That was a turn-based game,and you cannot force your eraser onto the other,only the flicking of your fingertips.If you lose,your eraser goes to your opponet.Basically.

The rules of marbles are sort of the same.It works on the same principle of being a turn-based game,but instead of pushing your marble over short distances,if you are accurate enough you can go all the way from one side of the sand pit to another.Of course,that is humanly impossible,but some daring/stupid/crazy kid back in those days were dumb enough to try the stunt.Anyway,even then,they didnt involve any electronic gadgets.

I got my first handphone only in the later days of my Secondary School.I didnt need it before,and even after i got my hands on one,they were used for messaging purposes.Right now,messaging seldom involves messages like "What are you doing now?",or any mundane IQ-lowering messages.But back then,i think that was all i sent to my friends,which really was a ridiculously dumb thing to do,now that i think of it.I dont think i knew about internet under midway through Secondary One,and got my own computer only in J1 as well.The truth is,i dont think the kids these days have the right mindset to use such things properly.

You start to wonder just what the hell they use their handphones for.Crazy photo-snapping sprees aside,with the calling and messaging functions on a handphone,what does an average primary school kid use their handphones for?Look,i dont suppose the social circle of an average primary school kid spans further than their classmates.Okay,if they go to church then it is a different story.But it is not like all primary school kids are christians,or whatever.So when your social circle revolves around your own classmates,and you basically spend the whole day with them in class,what do you talk about after class then?Pokemon?Digimon?Or how the growth of that single strand of hair under your armpit might be one of the seven deadly signs of cancer?Seriously,that's called 'puberty',and whatever you do with the functionality of your handphone can only be deemed by a single word in all of Oxford dictionary: Stupidity.

Project yourself thirty years from now.It is the year 2036,and you are probably in your fifties right now.You have two kids,a boy and a girl,and a lovely wife who works for a law firm.You are happy with your life,because you have a job as a broker,and your family is well off.But looking at the things you kids are interested in,you cant help but wonder what the world has turned into.They are walking around with a wireless Bluetooth(if that is still the in-thing)headphone to their ears,using a PDA to check out if their favourite cartoon is on television,to check schedules if they are free to hang out at the playground on Saturday afternoon,and then in their mouths,a cigarette.

Strange,and everything about that image is wrong.Im not saying that being internet savvy is something that is wrong and should be condemned.Well,that is a totally different thing really.I think kids dont really know what is right and what is wrong about their usage of their handphones.It's just strange,because i can imagine the teachers of the future pulling their hair out because the kids of the future are too out of control.Really,that is really the reason why i have no interest of becoming a teacher.I dont have the talent,for one,and i think with kids like myself,only ten years younger,the teachers of the future are all going to have to have some sort of therapy every month with the shrink.It is going to be a bleak world,and it is going to be morbid,but it's not like we can do anything about it.Sadly.