My name is Kio. I’m a 19 year-old sophomore at MIT. I moved into a dorm when classes started last September to be closer to my friends at school. My parents live in Lexington and I did the daily commute thing last year, but now I want to have more independence, though I usually go home on Sundays to have a good dinner, do some laundry and see my folks (in that order).

As far back as I can remember, we always had computers at home. As a kid, I was really into playing games on my Mac Quadra. Now I’m really into wearables and I’ve being using them for almost a year. Wearables are really cool.

I have an audio-based interface that allows me to integrate ambient sound, music, telephony, and system information. It’s kind of like having a soundtrack for my life. I can even have BSB in the background while I’m talking to my friends. When one of them is in the same room with me and the other one is in Japan… no problem! The three of us can listen to the same song at the same time and it really feels like we’re in the same place.

My parents were a bit worried about me not having a social life because of how much time I used to spend in front of computers. Somehow they feel a lot better about wearables. Now, my computer is always with me. I use my wearables all the time, everywhere. I’ve never been more connected, or more free, in my whole life. My friends all use wearables. If we want, we can stay in constant contact with each other, with school, even with our families. But we’re not replacing reality; we’re enhancing it.