Instead, he turned out to be a 20-year-old college student. And in person hewas so tongue-tied that he could hardly complete a sentence. He said theouting was a rarity for him, that he spent his entire life -- social lifeincluded -- in front of a computer.

This isn't a new phenomenon. We've been reading for years how computers havebred a generation of maladjusted geeks, computer junkies or whatever youcall them.

Carman Chan, a 28-year-old Hong Kong woman who is developing a new method ofteaching English, also spends most of her time at her computer. In a smallapartment she shares with her brother and sister, Ms. Chan stays in her tinybedroom/study all day, until her eyes are too strained to look at themonitor. She uses her computer for work and for socializing. Only on Sundaymornings does she take a break, for tennis and lunch with friends.

BUT Ms. Chan is far from a geek. Self-confident, friendly and stylish, shewould fit easily into an office environment. Instead, however, she choosesto build her life around a computer, because she has decided that computersare a much more efficient way to learn, to work and to communicate.

I'll leave it to sociologists to determine how people such as Ms. Chan,multiplied by thousands or even millions, are changing the world, replacingnormal social interactions in the workplace and elsewhere with aself-imposed isolation inspired by the ease and efficiency of computers.

Software makers who keep turning out products that challenge all but themost ardent techie might not have recognized the trend yet, but Ms. Chan issymbolic of a new breed. Technology is now for everyone — including women,on this continent where computers traditionally have been a man'spreserve.

"I used to hate computers," Ms. Chan says. Her first year in college, shemajored in math and minored in computer science. "After one semester, Idropped the minor," she says, to seek freedom. "I wanted to study in thecanteen, but with computers you had to stay in a room."

What changed her mind was the Internet, which she discovered about fiveyears ago, just as it was starting to take off. "Before this, I liked thefreedom of being able to go anywhere. But with the Internet, while you're inone place physically, mentally you can go everywhere you want," she says.

Besides using the Internet to build a business, "everywhere" for herincludes reading newspapers, e-mailing friends overseas, chatting online onICQ — the popular "buddy chat" service — and posting messages on bulletinboards. One such message led to a full-blown relationship, when a Hong Kongman now living in London sent a reply calling her query "silly." Ms.Chan,who values honesty above all else, ignored the insult and answered back.Ms. Chan vastly prefers the Internet to the telephone, even to arrangedinners. "You can send one e-mail to everybody; you don't have to make a lotof calls," she says. For the first year of her relationship, she and herboyfriend talked on the phone only once, when he called to apologize forhaving sent what he said was a personal poem, but what instead turned out tobe lyrics to a song that she recognized.

"E-mail and ICQ have a great advantage," she says. "You can multitask; youcan be reading an article, chatting with friends in Guangzhou and Hong Kong,and replying to an e-mail all at the same time. With the telephone, you canonly do one thing."

In addition, she says, "there is something here that has to do with beingChinese. Sometimes it's quite difficult to say what you want to say inperson. E-mail can improve a friendship." When she and her boyfriendeventually live together, "we'll still send each other e-mails," shepredicts.

Like almost every young Internet addict, Ms. Chan realizes that many othersalso sitting in their bedrooms in front of a computer are at the same timemaking lots of money. (Only a week ago, in fact, Singapore, as a spur toentrepreneurship, legalized using apartments in state-owned buildings forbusinesses.) So now she is developing a "dot com" enterprise,www.englishstreet.com, to teach English a new way.

Incorporating audio and video, it will instruct through articles in currentmagazines and even through movie trailers, so students won't have to learnfrom dull textbooks, Ms. Chan says.

"You can learn English and absorb up-to-date information at the same time,"adds this master of multitask. The impressive Englishstreet Web site isalready operating as a prototype; actual instruction will start sometimethis year.

Ms. Chan, who admits to screaming in frustration when she once had to go aweek without a computer on a visit to England, is proof that Internetaddiction can be all-consuming. When asked whether all those hours staringat a monitor created a feeling of isolation, she replied: "I still hang outwith friends. We have dinner together." And what do they talk about atdinner, in addition to lively discussions of current events? "Mainly aboutthe Internet, and ideas to make money from e-commerce.

(The Asian Wall Street Journal)