The Crackberry
On Tuesday at 8 p.m. Eastern time, as reported in The New York Times, 5 million Blackberry users were cut off from their precious handheld wireless e-mail devices. After living in agony waiting for service to be restored, they saw their Blackberrys came back to life after 10 hours.
The responses that I’ve read to this blackout from many avid users are indicative of the fact that we as a technology-driven population are hopeless without our cell phones, laptops, and Palm Pilots. I know that I almost never leave the house without my cell phone and am at a complete loss when I do.
The result of this manic obsession with wireless communication, however, I think is less than healthy. At the office, instead of speaking with a colleague face-to-face, send them an e-mail. Sitting at home, don’t bother calling your friend to come hang out with you, just get on AIM and send them a message. Need plans for tonight? Use Facebook or MySpace to get in touch with people — the perks of social networking are endless!
We no longer value or spend the time to actually communicate with the people closest to us, and the toll this takes on the quality of our relationships is tremendous. The double-edged sword of wireless communication is finally getting to me, and it’s sharper than I imagined it to be.
— Shivani Khanna
Comments
Actually, did you know that there have been studies going on that say cell-phone radiation/waves are causing a disappearance of bees? If such a thing is true, it’s horrible for the world’s agricultural future.
Posted by: Linda | April 21, 2007 3:05 PM