[Bcloutier]

I looked at the paper this morning and found this as the front page. Thought I'd post it and get your thoughts on it. I found it an interesting read.

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For anyone just crawling out from under a rock, �Crackberry� is lingo for Blackberry�the flashy, hand-held mobile device that entrances users with instant messaging, wireless Internet access, global positioning capabilities and an increasingly iconic status.

Not even U.S. President Barack Obama would give up his Blackberry, despite privacy warnings from aides.

As proof of its grip on users, Blackberry maker Research In Motion announced last month that it had shipped out its 50 millionth device.

Based in Waterloo, Ont., Blackberry is also one of the few global corporations in mass hiring mode, saying it anticipates to fill 3,000 job openings this year.

Some users proudly confess to being addicted to their Crackberries, albeit tongue in cheek, and Michael Wendland is among them.

�Oh yeah, I am for sure,� he said. �It really is an addiction that is probably much stronger than most people realize.�

It�s certainly not a device the Kelowna mortgage broker can easily separate himself from and definitely not a gadget he�s willing to give up.

�No. I could maybe move to an iPhone (Blackberry�s competition) or something along those lines but I couldn�t get rid of having instant access to e-mails and things like that.�

In fact, Wendland said he can�t remember a free moment, at least during business hours, that he has ignored the device when it�s gone off, unless he�s chatting face-to-face with a client.

However, even then he finds himself having to resist the urge to check the latest incoming message.

�I�d want to look. I think it�s (become) habit really,� Wendland said.

He broke the habit for barely a week this winter, when he went on a trip to Mexico and was forced to pack away the device. �Down there it�s just exorbitantly expensive to have cell phone and e-mail coverage. So I just turned it off,� Wendland explained.

�The first couple of days, it was like getting off an addiction. It was just driving me nuts.�

He confessed he twitched and paced, wondering how many e-mails he was missing, having not checked his Blackberry for days.

Right now, Wendland will only use his Blackberry for business, he said, choosing to keep some equally addictive distractions, like the social networking site Facebook, out of the equation.

�Facebook would bring the personal mixing into the business a little bit too much. I would like to keep it separate.�

At one point, Wendland�s use was heading down a slippery slope. He was leaving the Blackberry on every night, allowing it to routinely interrupt his sleep.

�I kept it down in the kitchen charging but it would still either ring or vibrate and I would hear it.�

Although he hadn�t reached the point where he�d get up to check the device in the wee hours of the morning, the preoccupation with the Blackberry was going too far. So he now turns off the mobile at night.

�I�ve even started lately to just shut it off around seven or eight at night and just be done with it,� Wendland said.

That weaning may also have had something to do with the fact that the incessant interruptions were irritating his wife.

Meanwhile, Wendland scoffed at the suggestion that some kind of Blackberry etiquette be created to help users better manage their use.

Using self-imposed guidelines as an example, Wendland said he has no problem answering messages right in front of a friend who�s a fellow Blackberry user, knowing they�d be comfortable with it.

However, he wouldn�t do the same thing in the middle of a conversation with someone he barely knew, he said.

It should be the user�s choice where to draw the line, Wendland concluded.

Delivery driver Dave Stagg isn�t so sure every Blackberry user knows where to draw that line, however. He�s seen a dangerous side to the addiction.

�When I look down from the truck, I can see (drivers) with their Blackberries down below the (vehicle) window so no one can see them,� said Stagg. �They�re using the touch pad with both hands and driving with the knee.�

Stagg said he�ll stick with his cell phone and hands-free device to ensure he stays clear of that kind of behaviour.

Economic Development Commission executive director Robert Fine, an avid Blackberry user himself, said he too knows of people whose use goes too far.

�A colleague of mine in economic development in another city is constantly reaching for it whenever there is a buzz, interrupts conversations and leaves it on at night next to the bed�way over the top,� stated Fine, who responding via Blackberry while on an overseas trip.

While it�s taken a bit of time and nudging from loved ones, Fine said he�s learned to curb his enthusiasm for his Blackberry.

�I have learned to turn mine off on holidays,� he continued. �It took me five years and a focussed wife to do this.�

Generally, he won�t turn it on during weekends, either.

And, he has other rules he follows to control his Blackberry use.

�I don�t interrupt meetings one-on-one but will do a quick check when no one is looking, if appropriate,� explained Fine.

�I find it amazingly rude when, in a middle of a conversation, people pull their Blackberries out and respond to someone (because) having technology in hand should not remove one from that human connection.�

When properly used the Blackberry is a valuable tool, said Fine. It�s also not something he�s willing to give up anytime soon.

�The Blackberry is the lifeblood when I am away or out of the office,� Fine noted. �With better technology now, GPS tracking and web surfing it is in many cases all I need (and) it has saved me many a time in strange cities or when I get lost.�

He said the device allows him to make optimal use of his time. �It also makes downtime more effective, be it sitting in an airport, doctor�s office or, dare I say, at a traffic light while red.�

And in a type of job like his, where minutes can mean the difference between big dollars injected into the local economy or the money going elsewhere, the technology�s effectiveness becomes apparent.

�I recall a meeting with my first site selector, someone who makes location decisions for investors, who said, and I quote: �If we need info from your community you have about 30 minutes to acknowledge the question and three hours to get us the info or we will move on to the next community on our list.��

Fine�s job demands that he be �investor-ready,� he said, and his mobile device allows him to be just that.

Kelowna-Lake Country MP Ron Cannan is also a Blackberry fan. �Just ask President Obama,� Cannan commented.

Cannan will not say he�s addicted to the gadget but will admit he relies on it a lot.

�It�s obviously a great Canadian invention (and) a communication tool I can use to help stay in touch with constituents,� Cannan added.

�I�m pretty well attached (to it) from the time I get up in the morning to when I go to bed.�

When in Ottawa, the Blackberry is his best means of staying in touch with staff, constituents and his wife and daughters, Cannan commented. The only time he can�t use it is during Conservative caucus meetings, where Blackberry use is banned.

Unlike Wendland and Fine, Cannan hasn�t been able to turn off his mobile while on holidays. The member of parliament also admited to getting some not so nice looks from his wife when the use gets out of hand.

�If you get carried away, reign it in,� he recommended. �It has potential to control you if not kept in check.�

For the most part, Cannan said his Blackberry is �convenient.� The only negative aspect of the technology he experiences is that people expect an immediate response if they know you have one, the MP concluded.

Meanwhile, UBC Okanagan assistant professor of sociology Christopher Schneider said he finds people�s use of Blackberries quite �interesting.�

Not only are people willingly accepting the control these devices have over their daily lives, in many cases individuals are paying for that control, Schneider said

�This is instant gratification on a whole new level,� Schneider stated.

That need for instant gratification is a product of the �advanced capitalism and the consumer culture that we live in,� he explained.

�It�s gimme, gimme, gimme, now, now, now and it�s the same with the Crackberries,� he said.

The devices are also effectively pitched as a convenience, strengthening its appeal, Schneider added.

�So people want these devices because they want to be reached all the time because everybody wants to feel important (and) this is a way of connecting in that regard.�

That said, Schneider also feels it�s important to keep the Blackberry kind of addiction and the word Crackberry in a proper context. This is not a serious addiction in almost all cases.

�The term is used, usually, in good taste and it�s not really considered a slight at this point,� said Schneider, �so people have embraced this label and they are acting the part of the label.�

He has yet to hear of any Blackberry use becoming �a condition� or an illness.

�If it�s a condition then the person who has the condition would be less likely to be able to control it and so they could make the argument, �It�s not my fault. I have an illness or a sickness.��

There�s definitely the potential for an individual�s use to spin out of control, however.

�They keep some people up all night. Some people keep them next to their bedsides.

�It�s insane. If you want to reach them at 3:45 in the morning then good for you.�

For some people, the thought of being separated from Blackberry and the device�s instant gratification can potentially be quite jarring, the assistant professor explained.

�By removing that, you remove these people�s fixes, who like to be in touch and who like to feel special and so in that way the label Crackberry could be warranted,� he continued.

In some cases, the device even goes beyond an addiction and becomes an �identity management device,� Schneider said.

�If I have a Blackberry and it�s going off all the time and other people see it going off all the time, it�s going to show other people, �Hey look, I�m important, people want to get in touch with me.��

Generally speaking though, Blackberries simply satisfy some people�s deep inner need to feel special and wanted, stated Schneider.

�Somebody sends you message, maybe your wife or your son, �Hey, I love you.� It makes you feel good and even though you might be busy it�s a nice little booster for you. You get a fix all day long.�

However, the Blackberry and devices like it, popular as they are, can never be a substitute for physical human contact, said Schneider.

�The possibility exists now for all human interaction to take place in a mediated context.�

As it becomes normal or more �socially appropriate� for people to use these devices, it will be important to balance all that digital communication with real human contact, like touching and hugging.

�Are we going to have a whole civilization of sociopaths in 50 years?� Schneider asked.

�I don�t want to call it a danger or an epidemic (but) that�s certainly a possibility.�

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Thoughts? Have any of your local papers done anything regarding "Crackberrys" before?

~Bcloutier~

[amazinglygraceless]

Thoughts?

The fact that someone was actually paid to write this moronic, myth
perpetuating drivel is astounding.

Have any of your local papers done anything regarding "Crackberrys" before?

No, and I would cancel my subscriptions to any of them that did.