Internet cafe culture, Bulgaria

Globetechnology: Internet cafe culture, Bulgaria
Globetechnology: Internet cafe culture Internet cafe culture By KATE BAGGOTT Monday, August 15, 2005 Updated at 10:48 AM EDT Globe and Mail Update Lovech, Bulgaria. The backwards N is followed by an H. After that, as long as you know the P sounds like R, you'll know you've found it. Almost five years ago, the first symbols I learned to decipher in Cyrillic script spelled out "Internet Club." It's a phrase that, along with "Internet Cafe," still makes me feel at home no matter where I am. True, its a sentiment that has become old fashioned. In this era of lightweight laptops, other portable means of accessing the Internet and the proliferation of global wireless networks, the Internet cafe is becoming obsolete to travellers like me and even student-age North American backpackers who count wireless devices among the baggage on their backs. It's too bad really. The glimpses of how Internet Cafes provide access to technology for entire communities are as profound for travellers to witness as any other cultural event. Advertisements Here, every week, early in the morning, an entire team of young men comes in for their regular gaming session before beginning the work day. They wear matching shirts like a bowling team, but this being Europe after all, the shirts were a lot more fashionable. They played much the way the kids do, yelling mild curses at each other, offering advice and using nicknames based on time spent together at one activity. The kids come later in the day, each of them clutching a single Lev (about 90 cents) for an hour of play. My husband's 10 year-old nephew and I recently spent almost an hour here, sitting back to back before one of us noticed the other. I was blogging, he was playing Counterstrike. I got an hour of escape to my own thoughts from the demands of a foreign language and foreign relatives. Our nephew got an hour's taste of international youth culture. His mother got two hours of child-free peace during the hottest hours of the afternoon. One hour of walking back and forth to the Internet Club in addition to the one hour of play time. Actually, a second mother or grandmother got a break too. As is usual among gaming boys here, a friend accompanied my nephew. He spent the hour hanging over my nephew's shoulder acting as commentator and consultant. On another day, when the opposite boy has a Lev, the roles will be reversed. In early evening, house or trance music will blast from the speakers (but then it does all day long) and the place fills with teenagers and young adults dressed to the nines. Screens show multiplayer games and Chat Rooms. For the first time in the day, the gender balance between male and female occupants of the room is equal. Instant Messages are exchanged with relatives abroad, with friends sitting at home (some families do have computers) and even with the fetching flirt across the room. Outside the cafe, life for most Bulgarians seems to be improving compared to when I was first here five years ago. Buildings are occupied with new tenants, roads are being repairs slowly, but surely. Facades have stopped deteriorating. There are still limits to what technology can do to be part of this improvement. The physical infrastructure of the country (especially here in the poorer provinces), the postal system and questionable network security practices make the expansion of e-commerce and e-finance applications unlikely in the near future. At the same time, watching these kids in the Internet Cafe gives me hope. No technology is passing them by. they use it, are comfortable with it, and understand it as early as any wealthier western kid. When the time has come for technology to play a bigger role in the economy here, the kids will be ready. That's the real potential created by Internet Cafes, the reality that makes them worth a visit for any traveller anywhere.