From the day
Perspective: The Teenager · Sound
I’m hunched over my desk, ignoring the static of the local radio playing that "Smooth" song for the hundredth time while I wait for a single MP3 to finish crawling through Napster. The fan in my new Apple AirPort is humming a low, mechanical rhythm, promising a cord-free future in cyberspace that still feels painfully slow, especially when I'm just trying to download a track before my mom needs the phone line. I catch the blue glow of a BlackBerry across the room and roll my eyes; seeing that tech is just as lame as the kids at school obsessing over Pokémon card trades. My older brother is bragging about some new Bluetooth headset, but whatever—I’m just vibing to the clicks and whirrs of a world finally going wireless.