I am newly obsessed with Mad Men, and you'll see why I mention this in a moment. Every character seems to have a cigarette permanently afffixed to their fingers, and while this fittingly retro touch repulses me, I also find it intriguing. There's a scene where Betty and Don have just had a Valentine's rendezvous, and as soon as they finish, Betty whips out a cigarette.
It occured me to that if you just replaced the cigarette with a BlackBerry, that could be half the women (and men) I know. BlackBerries and, more recently, iPhones have become the cigarettes of the twenty-first century. We use them because they're cool and because everyone else has them. We use them when we're bored and don't know what to do with our hands.
Twenty years from now, maybe there will be conclusive evidence that mobiles devices our bad for our health. But we'll continue using them anyway. And because I know many of you share my love/hate relationship with technology, a few more musings about BlackBerries...
- Having a BlackBerry has changed the way I accessorize. Now, instead of lugging around a book or a couple of magazines, I carry my BlackBerry. Whenever I'm riding the bus, waiting for the subway, or find myself with unexpected downtime, I can catch up on news articles or RSS feeds. Not to say I've given up on books, but when you're carrying a tiny purse, it helps to have something small and compact to save space. Plus, it's easier to read the illuminated screen than a book late at night.
- Some of the shortcomings are shocking. My BlackBerry can predict what word I'm trying to type but it can't automatically adjust the clock when I switch time zones. Are you kidding me?! Admittedly, it's not that hard to reset the time zone manually, but when I traveled to Napa back in September, I was surprised to find that my phone was still set to Boston time. Remember to do this whenever you travel or you are in for major confusion!
- It's all about the extras. When I first bought a BlackBerry, they sold me with promises that I could tether my BlackBerry to my laptop and pick up a wireless signal where there wouldn't otherwise be a signal (mainly, I wanted to outsmart airports that charge $10/hour for internet). But it turns out that Verizon charges an extra $15/month for this service, a fact that the salesperson conveniently forgot to mention. And when I decided I needed something to protect my BlackBerry's screen from scratches, I went back to the Verizon store to see if they carried any products that could help. Surprisingly, they do not make such things for the BlackBerry Pearl, which is what I have. So I walked across the street to the T-Mobile store, and *surprise!* they do make such things and were happy to sell it to me. Figures.
Flickr photo by SheepGuardingLlama