Techno-Chic
Gotta Be Up on the Upgrade
story by Hector Gonzalez // art by Angel Luna

It's amazing how far technology has gone.   It has taken us to the moon, cured different types of physical illness and has allowed us to communicate with people across the planet with the push of a button.   Technology has been so woven into young people's lives that that even middle school students have cell phones with cameras on them. But technology has not only been a sign on innovation, it has also reflected our culture and trends.   Along with technological advancements, we have created the “techno-chic” – a standard of coolness based on your ability to stay up and incorporate technology into your life.  

When I was a young kid in the early 90's our technology trends might have been things like a game on a digital watch or an alarm clock that sang.   When I was in middle school in 94' some students had pagers, but that's as techno-chic young people got. But now-a-days young kids have e-mails, instant messenger, and cell phones, and that's just to start.

The other day I asked a girl for her number and as I was pulling my cell phone out to add her to my contact list, I realized that my phone was all busted and old.   I was somewhat embarrassed about it.   I bought my phone close to two years ago and even then it was a fairly old model. It doesn't have any out of the ordinary features like a camera, email, or songs that can be downloaded on it. Although most people would claim that these things are completely useless, they have become necessities of the techno-chic era.

In the same way that someone might have judged you according to your sneakers and jacket back in the day, people are now being judged according to how technologically updated they are. The other day, I heard someone say, “my phone is getting old, I need to upgrade.”   The idea that people are using such a word as “upgrade” in regular conversation is a sign of the times.   I've known people whose paychecks literally went to nothing else but there cell phone bills and upgrades.

But cell phones are not the only things that carry such trends with them. Everything that has to do with technology in terms of our everyday lives also carry these trends as well. For example, the thinner and lighter your laptop is, the better it is. Even if you're laptop runs exactly like a standard one, if its not thin enough, its not updated. I know of someone who had a hard drive installed in his X- Box that has every single Nintendo game installed in it. The other day my father's computer screen broke, I told him that I could get him a screen from my work, but he didn't want to take it because it wasn't the flat LCD screens.

Even an online identity is becoming a techno-chic. Before, the only online identity you would have is your instant messenger profile, but now with the use of online networks such as Friendster and Myspace, the concept of an online identity has become more complex, dealing with how many friends you have on your network and what songs and videos you have on your page.

Even CD's, something that is very much a part of pop culture is something that is slowly fading away. A few years back mini-disc recorders were at the front line, as far as portable music was were concerned. Now, even those are looked at as out of style and now replaced by I-pods and MP3 players.

Soon enough, I'm sure that cell phones will be as common and practical to young kids as a bike, and MP3 song files will be the way of distributing music albums.