It's official, we are all nuts
Addicted to your BlackBerry? Its nickname, CrackBerry, says it all. There is no recreational use of Research in Motion's BlackBerry. It is a compulsive addiction, or you're not a user.
Academic studies back up the notion. One, by David Vance, assistant professor of accounting at Rutgers-Camden university, and Nada Kakabadse, professor of management and business research at the U.K.'s University of Northampton, found that a third of BlackBerry users show signs of addiction "similar to alcoholics."
Many companies would give a king's ransom for such customer dependency. Research in Motion's quarterly results show that, regardless of the slowing economy, there is no letup in the demand for the company's push e-mail software that allows customers to access their e-mail on wireless devices in real time.
"People may be spending less money on cars, they may be spending less money on their houses, but it turns out the BlackBerry is the one essential," Duncan Stewart, president of Duncan Stewart Asset Management, told The Associated Press.
After years of success in the corporate market, Research in Motion is now targeting consumers. The company says it added 2.2 million new subscribers during the three months ending March 1, bringing its total to more than 14 million. And it shipped 4.4 million smart phones.
Palm and Apple want to get into the game too, via their Treo and iPhone, respectively. Never-severed e-mailed connectivity is only going to get more acute, not less.
That is especially true in the US. Texting via instance messaging (IM) and Short Message Service (SMS) has yet to eclipse e-mail for wireless communication there, in the way it has in Europe and Asia. And in the US, Microsoft's Exchange server technology is dominant when it comes to work-related e-mail.
The BlackBerry found its first big pool of users in corporate America. Helping with productivity and collaboration at work, it lets employees keep up with colleagues, customers and suppliers even while away from the office.
It wasn't cheap, but having one let you flaunt your telecom bling.
For business travellers, it proved a time-saving godsend, converting traveling dead time - at airports and en route to and from meetings, hotels and restaurants - into something productive, and allowing that extra half-hour of sleep that no longer needed to be sacrificed to answering e-mails on the laptop.
But, like addicts, users of these devices are not using the time savings and productivity gains to shorten their work hours. Instead, they work longer. Glenn Wilson, a psychologist at King's College London, found that two-thirds of users check work e-mails out of office hours and on holidays.
Getting more done, thanks to the speed of communication, doesn't necessarily enhance the quality of life.
Wilson found that a compulsion to reply to each new message led to constant changes of direction, which inevitably tired and slowed down the brain. The distractions of constant e-mails, text and phone messages are a greater threat to IQ and concentration, he says, than taking cannabis.
Even those most reliant on this technology worry about never-ending workweeks and the toll imposed by the constant interruptions to family life and personal relationships--a result of having this umbilical cord to work. People are always partly somewhere else, whether at dinner or in bed, surreptitiously glancing down at the glowing screen and stroking the scroll wheel.
None of which provides a sound footing for a relationship. Work is seen as taking precedence over personal needs. Any compulsive addiction is, at root, selfish.
It is not just the distraction. Studies show that overwork results in higher levels of stress and tiredness that can lead to diminished intimacy and increased conflict with partners, and premature career burnout. The resentment can be amplified when one partner is less connected than the other.
And the suspicion must be that it is double the trouble when both partners are constantly connected to Exchange servers more than to each other--especially among couples dubbed DILS and DINS (for double income, little sex, and double income, no sex).
Seem familiar? Always checking e-mail and too weary for sex? Getting up at weekends two hours before the rest of the family to get some work in and feeling guilty you can't squeeze more hours out of sleep time?
Dr Jerald Block, writing in The American Journal of Psychiatry, has suggested that people who send excessive texts and e-mails many have a mental illness. There are four symptoms, Block says: suffering from feelings of withdrawal when a computer cannot be accessed; an increased need for better equipment; the need for more time to use it; and experiencing the negative repercussions of their addiction.
One solution: Don't slavishly respond to every e-mail. In Europe, it is increasingly considered ill-mannered to read an e-mail that arrives during a meal, let alone answer it, just as it would be considered rude to read a book at the table during dinner.
King College's Wilson found in a clinical trial commissioned by Hewlett-Packard that one in five of those studied broke off from meals or social engagements to receive and deal with messages. Although nine out of 10 agreed that answering messages during face-to-face meetings or office conferences was rude, one-third nonetheless felt that this had become "acceptable and seen as a sign of diligence and efficiency."
Social mores can change. Smoking was once acceptable in public too.
And employers might need to change the culture as much as employees. "Employers rightfully provide programs to help workers with chemical or substance addictions. Addiction to technology can be equally damaging to the mental health of the worker," says Gayle Porter, an associate professor of management at the Rutgers University School of Business. She co-authored with Vance and Kakabadse a paper titled "Employer Liability for Addiction to Information and Communication Technology."
She recommends that companies encourage employees to walk away from their BlackBerrys, e-mail and cellphones while on vacation. Otherwise, can lawsuits be far behind?
Stress and a compulsive addiction to overworking aren't solely caused by wireless push e-mail, though it makes it easier to get hooked. And there is a generation that has grown up expecting to connect 24/7 to friends and family by e-mail, IM and SMS that can separate work and social never-severed connectivity.
If you are not one of them, you don't have to go cold turkey. Remember, even the CrackBerry has an off button.
Executive Style, April 7, 2008
Management - Executive Style Home - smh.com.au 
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A third of BlackBerry users show signs of addiction "similar to alcoholics." 
". Even if someone paid me to treat my addiction i wouldn't, i love my BB and would never give it up.
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