Tony Brown, DST Correspondent

I am a teenager, and I am addicted to text messaging. It’s not just texting that gets me high; I’m an instant message junkie too. I spend more time a day online than I do in school, and even at work I’m sneaking my way onto AOL Instant Messenger to chat with my friends. Why? In one word: convenience. In another, efficiency. Why pick up the phone, dial four different numbers, engage in conversation, and slowly form plans for a trip to the mall when you can talk to each participant online, all at the same time. Better yet, consolidate the four separate windows into a single group chat. Businesses spend millions to streamline communications in ways teens and ‘tweens alike have mastered and discovered by age 12.

Text messaging is simply a form of mobile IM, an abbreviated form of mobile-to-mobile e-mail. I found it very interesting that while sitting in the opening session Sunday at The National Show, in the very midst of texting my friends back at home, the audience received a lesson in text messaging. Suddenly, I was the spotlight of attention, with my immediate neighbors eyeing my phone’s full QWERTY keyboard and rapid movements of my fingers as I rapidly tapped replies to incoming text messages on my archaic Nokia 6820.

I use text messaging in class just as much—if not more—as I do outside of school. I’ve even answered incoming calls in the middle of class if I thought I wasn’t disturbing the learning process. I seem to have an unspoken contract with my teachers; as long as I’m not distracting myself from learning or participating in the class, I am free to do what I’d like with my cell phone. For example, I am usually the most active participant in my U.S. Government class and, as such, have never been asked to put my cell phone away in the middle of class. It’s a trade-off and it works well for me.

I am a consumer that cable companies love to hate. Aside from choosing my computer over watching TV, and avoiding all advertisements that are targeted toward me, I am a part of the generation that is driving the revolution of a next-generation cable network. My attention span grows increasingly shorter with each hour I spend watching “South Park” on Comedy Central or “Laguna Beach” on MTV.

What I see at the National Show are innovations I would love to have. ITV, faster broadband, heck, even boring VoIP service interests me. Where I think cable is missing the boat is actually delivering those services to me in an intuitive, affordable, and valuable package. Whether it be the issues behind digital rights management, or fusses over who owns what, who can charge how much for what, and who has the right to do such a thing, companies are busy drilling holes in the hull of the next-generation network that is just waiting to set sail.

I want to do more with my TV than watch it. I want to participate. I want my broadband faster; I want the voice of the person on the other end of the phone line to be clearer. I want to play my video games online on a more reliable, faster, lag-free network. I’m picky down to the fact that I don’t like the pause between changing channels on digital cable. I’m happy with basic analog cable if it works, works well and works fast.

Cable has a long way to come in the next couple years to implement the make-or-break technologies that will ensure it remains the dominant communications delivery method in the coming decades. However, groundbreaking products and intuitive interfaces will win cable a home in the hearts of the next-generation of consumers if the hang-ups can be ironed out.

Tony Brown lives in Centennial, Colorado and attends Arapahoe High School. He is a senior and Editorial Editor of the Arapahoe Herald, the school newspaper. The National Scholastic Press Association has recognized his work nationally, and he recently won a 3rd place national award for News Photo of the Year (sponsored by the NPPA). The Arapahoe Herald was named a National Scholastic Press Association Pacemaker, which has been called “the high school equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize.” It is only the second high school newspaper in Colorado to win in the award’s 15-year history. Tony has been accepted into the University of Missouri School of Journalism and has received a scholarship for entrance this fall.