Once upon a time, I was kicked out of a store for no good reason.  OK, the store had a good reason, but it had nothing to do with me.

When I was growing up, all of the “cool kids” wore denim jackets.  It was a trend that set them apart and made them all stand out.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t one of the cool kids, but I wanted to be.  So one day, when my dad was cleaning out the attic, and he found his old Levi’s jacket, I begged him to let me have it.  That jacket was my ticket in to the in-crowd.

And my ticket out of several local stores.

What I didn’t know then was why the cool kids were considered “cool.”  It was because they broke all the rules.  They’d shoplift.  They’d stay out past curfew.  They’d roller blade and skateboard down the aisles at Target.  In reality, the “cool” kids were every store owner’s worst nightmare.

When I walked into the store wearing my very own denim jacket, all the store owners assumed I was going to cause trouble, too.  I was asked to leave a Target.  Followed by a security guard through Washington Square.  And even escorted out of Vancouver Mall.  The funny thing about it was that I never actually did anything wrong.

Well, there’s a new kind of “cool kid” on the market these days – the techy.  This is the guy who always carries an ultra-modern laptop around.  The woman with the Blackberry device that siphons free Internet from coffee shops.  The guy riding his Segway down the aisles at Fred Meyer.

Don’t believe me?  I managed to snap a few pictures of him the other day while I was out Christmas shopping.  Yes, that is a full-grown man riding through the store on a Segway.  No, he was not an employee.

My point is that every device and every tool has an acceptable use.  My post from yesterday was about the dark side of social networking and detailed at least one unacceptable use of Twitter.  Last week I witnessed and photographed the unacceptable use of a Segway in a public place.  Tomorrow I’m sure I’ll pass by someone using their laptop to illegally siphon Internet from someone’s home (by the way, “illegally” and “unacceptable” are synonymous in this case).

There’s a new group of “cool kids” in town these days, and they’re giving those of us who use the same tools in acceptable ways a bad name.  When I was a kid, I wore a jean jacket, but I didn’t steal from stores or vandalize the school.  Unfortunately, the association was there for people who saw my jacket.

Am I destined to be escorted out of a store now for using Twitter?  Only time will tell, but hopefully it will never come to that.