The Crackberry Epidemic
The telltale signs of addiction are everywhere. Slouched shoulders. Furtive movements just below the table. Unwillingness to hold eye contact for more than 10 seconds. Jittery impatience and involuntary twitching between hits. Quick release while in the bathroom, during intermission at the theater, or between sips of wine at the restaurant. Real conversations foregone for jolts of electronic satisfaction. And of course, like any real addiction – lots and lots of denial:
"It makes me more effective"
"C'mon, everyone does it – it's just a matter of time before you try it yourself".
"Don't worry – I can control myself".
Blackberry addiction is spreading like wildfire. Today's meetings aren't really meetings – there are becoming little snippets of conversation sandwiched between silent thumbathons. Today I was sitting in a meeting with five people. Three of them were furiously thumbing off, while the other two of us were trying to figure out if we were the modern day equivalent of Luddites, or courageous keepers of the flame of real conversation.
But at the same time the addiction is raging, it seems like a backlash is starting. Stanley Bing comically said goodbye to his beloved BB recently. And increasingly there is a recognition that our always connected world is starting to create new kinds of problems for us.
OK, let's be real – Blackberries help. We can transact business in real time. We can squeeze out productivity from frustrating down-time in planes, trains and taxis. We can find out about important stuff that is happening so we can quickly react.
But enough is enough -- too much Blackberrying is just plain bad for us. When terse electronic signals take the place of real conversations with real people, that's not a good thing. When we sneak quick glances while helping our kids with their algebra homework, that's a problem. When we don't have the courtesy to talk to someone for five minutes without getting distracted by our hand-held, it's just not right.
And about that downtime that we can now so productively use -- when was the last time we thought about using it to dig into a good novel? Sorry – I almost forgot what century I was in.
"It makes me more effective"
"C'mon, everyone does it – it's just a matter of time before you try it yourself".
"Don't worry – I can control myself".
Blackberry addiction is spreading like wildfire. Today's meetings aren't really meetings – there are becoming little snippets of conversation sandwiched between silent thumbathons. Today I was sitting in a meeting with five people. Three of them were furiously thumbing off, while the other two of us were trying to figure out if we were the modern day equivalent of Luddites, or courageous keepers of the flame of real conversation.
But at the same time the addiction is raging, it seems like a backlash is starting. Stanley Bing comically said goodbye to his beloved BB recently. And increasingly there is a recognition that our always connected world is starting to create new kinds of problems for us.
OK, let's be real – Blackberries help. We can transact business in real time. We can squeeze out productivity from frustrating down-time in planes, trains and taxis. We can find out about important stuff that is happening so we can quickly react.
But enough is enough -- too much Blackberrying is just plain bad for us. When terse electronic signals take the place of real conversations with real people, that's not a good thing. When we sneak quick glances while helping our kids with their algebra homework, that's a problem. When we don't have the courtesy to talk to someone for five minutes without getting distracted by our hand-held, it's just not right.
And about that downtime that we can now so productively use -- when was the last time we thought about using it to dig into a good novel? Sorry – I almost forgot what century I was in.
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