10 years? How about now!!! Give me two minutes, my phone, and a 3G signal and I can find out anything I need. Cell phones are literally becoming mini-computers focused on on-line services. Twitter clients for BBerry's, iPhones, and WM6 are a good example of it. It went from "who calls anyone anymore, everybody txts these days" to "who calls or txts? Don't you have IM or email on your phone?". I use my computer about 50% less now since I got my HTC Fuze with unlimited TXT and Data plan; with the lowest amount of minutes I might add. I always have Myspace, Facebook, Tiny Twitter, skype, Google Latitude, and IM running. If I could figure out how to merge my 1TB drive and my music I wouldn't need my laptop. Now I maintain a constant online presence and can still get crunk in the clubs.
Honestly, I think it's just the games screwing them up. Take a needle and scratch the disk they use to install it then delete one of the games DLL's. They'll never know you did it. They'll think the computer is acting up.
