What they do in a cyber cafe

Cyber cafes are supposed to be places where people go to send emails, write letters, surf the web and do school assignments, print, scan, etc. But what is actually happening is, youngsters are playing away computer games at almost all the computer shops which have network facilities. I should know, for I had operated a cyber café for about four years, six years back in Taiping, from year 1999. So, I think it might interest you to know what actually happened, in a cyber café. I will tell you the actual going ons in my cyber café, for you to make your own opinion regarding the good and bad of the outlets.

Apart from selling and repairing computers, I also ran the cyber café business. My shop had only twelve computers, then. I will normally open the shop for business at about 9 am. in the morning. Even at that time, a few boys will be waiting outside the shop, waiting anxiously for me to open the shop doors. Mind you, they will even stand around me when I was unlocking the doors, so that they can rush inside and pick good places! They should know because they were the very regular users. They knew which computers were smooth and which were not! These were schoolboys of the afternoon sessions. They lived in the kampungs and tamans around my shop. They will go back home after playing and loitering in the shop for about two to three hours. They will come back again wearing uniforms, and play some more! There were one or two boys who, once in a while, will shed off their school uniforms and wear normal clothes, and continue playing or loitering in the shop! Their reasons on enquiring were, they were on medical leave or not well, and will be going to clinic. Some morning session boys will come to the computer shop first, at about 2pm after school, play games or do some internet chatting, and only then go home.

I did not allow any cigarette smoking in my shop, even though it was not air-conditioned. Not even in the bathroom. I did catch a few of them trying to puff away at the back, near the bathroom and they were strongly warned of not being admitted inside, if they were caught again. They stopped. Even adults were no exception. And when using the internet, nobody was allowed to go into adult websites. Strictly forbidden, with notices on the wall. Many a times, did I catch my customers, both adults and schoolboys, trying to browse adult sites. They were told not to do so, in strong terms. Believe me, even boys as young as ten knew how to enter the smut sites, due to their constant minglings with their senior friends!

Online chatting, using the various chat programs in the net, was the next popular thing for those clients of mine. They can chat away for hours. People showed various reactions on their faces and actions while chatting. Some smiled, some laughed, patting the shoulders of their friends sitting beside, and there was a girl who even shed tears, while doing her chatting.

Writing letters or doing school assignments were quite impossible in my place, when the boys were playing the network games, for they will be shouting around instructions and challenging one another, often using vulgar words. Games of ‘Half Life’ and ‘Counter Strike’ were the clear favourites, which solely involved searching and killing the adversaries, using various warfare weapons.

Parents, too, often brought their children, even as young five or six years old, to my place so that these children could familiarize themselves with the first feelings of the computers. I had installed a few computer games for the children, and it became my enthusiastic responsibility to teach these children how to play the games, using the mouse and the various keys of the keyboard. I loved to see their eyes of bewilderment and excitement while they played the games!

Several incidents had discouraged me from continuing with my computer business, the main one being the gradual lessening in the business income, due to strong competitions from the newly opened cyber cafes around the area. Other incidents mainly pertained to the addiction of schoolboys to the computer games and their loitering in my shop. Once, a lady in a nurse’s uniform came inside and took her teenager son away, after whacking him in front of the others in the shop, and to my chagrin, shouting at me that he was never in the house, because of my shop. Another day, a gentleman also did the same thing with his son, only this time he just shouted at him. Being a sensitive person at heart, I had felt very guilty, then, and finally decided to put a stop to this business.





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