My family was still new to the country when we began living independently from our relatives whom we had lived with for the previous two years. We had immigrated to Canada when I was two but a cultural clash was already brewing; my home country, the Philippines, the Canadian culture, and an electronic culture. Before I went into kindergarten, at the tender age of four, my grandaunt and granduncle sent me a Nintendo Entertainment System from California. Being the sponge that most young children can be, I was quickly engrossed with the game Super Mario Brothers. With all of the running, jumping, and brick smashing, there were times I wish that I could grow just as big as the plumber on the television by touching a moving mushroom. This idolization of Mario follows Struken and Cartwright’s theory of subjectivity where the virtual reality incorporates my self into the sensory simulation (Sturken and Cartwright, 145). At this point in time, what kept me entertained was only the beginning of my new culture and emerging lifestyle.

Next