Sherry Turkle’s ethnographic research concludes that computers seduce children. The seduction begins with a child fascinated and intrigued by the screen which leads to a relationship where the child associates the computer with reality. I, myself, experienced this seduction. As a child, my father and I bonded by memorizing DOS commands, tinkering with his Commodore 64 and installing PacMan and our favourite game, Lemmings. After getting my own computer, naming him Theo, mastering Windows 3.1 and spending eight hours a day on BBS’ I became what Sherry Turkle describes as a “cyborg baby”. I experienced feelings of “specialness” and uniqueness with the possession of this computer, and ability to “change” things. Turkle concluded that children, from a young age, regard the computer as “sort of alive”. (cyborg_babies.html,1) I experienced a dependence, friendship and agency with the computer that continued throughout childhood, puberty, and teenage-hood up until the present.
