Relationships: Relating to Others around Technology

Lanning’s narrative suggests how computer use can be fun and social even within a formal educational environment. Although the computer teacher drilled Lanning and his classmates on objective information about computers, he recalls the experience as one where the teacher structured the activity as a fun competition among peers, motivated by the promise of candy. This kind of fun/competitive environment is also reflected in the way Lanning recalls himself and his classmates striving to sit with friends and racing each other with their typing speed, so that they were developing relationships with each other while simultaneously learning technology skills, which Lanning marks as valuable later in his narrative. The positive nature of these memories is evident in the fond way Lanning recalls both the racing and the Jolly-Rancher/question game, as well as in the way he represents himself as someone for whom computer use is comfortable, social, and fun.