Wireless teenage angst

Not long ago I met a teenager with enough pierced facial parts to make a pin cushion jealous. I asked her why she had so many. She looked at me with a degree of silent contempt and said, "Because it's a happin' thing." "Happin?" I asked. "Ya, like it tells people I got a lot goin on." I let the discussion drop at that point.
Now, I'm an ex-teenager myself, so I can understand where she's "coming from." I can remember in the 60s when this teenager came home from college with hair longer than dad and mom would have liked. Asked why, all I could say was, "Because its cool." (I don't think my parents would have understood happin'.) My "coolness" lasted one day.
Well, we have all gone through a period of transition when we adopted a style that made us part of a generation. And isn't that what's "happin'" to the current generation of wireless connectivity and applications? Everyone seems to have adopted a style that I hope will be a passing phase like hula-hoops. That style is Wireless Internet access.
I get so annoyed at seeing all the TV ads for wireless Internet access. They make it seem likes it's the easiest thing in the world to do. And if you aren't doing it you are so "yesterday."
Oh, the humanity - Those of us trying to surf the net using a standard keypad and attempting to look into a view screen so small that reading it will only lead to laser vision surgery.
Ernest Worthman, RF Design's technology editor, almost fell out of his chair laughing as I tried to demonstrate how I could surf the net using my new PCS phone. I attempted to access Yahoo and by the time I keyed in my password and URL I no longer had interest. All I wanted was the Rockies-Braves score. I might add I was dumped offline while online. (As in, I'm still connected to the marvels of Sprint but can't connect to the Web.) After I was put into a holding pattern waiting to get back to the wonderful world of wireless Internet connectivity, I became obsessed. I was going to do it and show Ern that I, too, can be a technology junkie. Alas, it was not to be. After about an hour I found myself laughing like Reinfield in the Dracula movie.

It may be just an attitude problem. Both the phone and me have one.

While I obviously have my bias toward wireless "Internetism," I realize that for technology to grow it (like teenagers) must go through phases. My hope is this phase is short lived. With Bluetooth becoming more viable, my sincere hope is that Bluetooth (and the clones that are sure to follow) will give viable wireless applications. Applications that one-day we can look back on and wonder how we ever lived without them. (Remember what is was like before microwaves came to the kitchen?)