Rogers and his Generation Y brethren have not known a world without computers, cell phones and the consumer electronics they use for entertainment and fun. They're more open. They've grown up in a technology era, where we haven't. What you've seen in the last 20 years is a cultural shift. Companies realize this and are marketing more and more to youths.
Teens use the stuff.
In a Harris Interactive survey reported in January, about 60 percent of teens said they have their own computer at home. Granted, not all teens have access to technology. But in Washington state, students can access the Internet from roughly 95 percent of the state's classrooms, state officials say. Here's how Rogers, a teenager at a suburban high school, spent a rainy spring Monday in Bellevue. Rogers awakens to the buzz and music from two alarm clocks.