Look at her. Holding her $14 coffee drink, carrying a messenger bag, and smiling as she talks on her work-issued BlackBerry. What's wrong with this picture? No one smiles at the fact they are connected to work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Unless you work for as a cookie tester - in which case, rock on.
When it comes down to it, being attached to the work environment in such a way is not healthy. The American ideal of success has created a monster army of workaholics. 24/7 connection doesn't allow for rest or relaxation in the least. I wouldn't be able to sleep at night just due to the prospect of that phone ringing.
I was given a BlackBerry for a consulting job I was working on about a year ago. For about two weeks, I felt like Mr. Freakin' Wall Street. I was checking emails, looking at company stocks I didn't understand, and making calls to people way above my pay grade. Then it got old. Really fast. That ring. That piercing ring. It signified an email was just dropped in my inbox. Well, great - I guess! I've got mail. Why do I have mail at 3:30AM? Why do I need to respond to this by 6AM? Don't these people ever sleep?!
I feel that technology, along with many other things, can become dangerous as soon as they are taken to the extreme. Now with BlackBerry becoming more commercialized, maybe people will start to relax a bit. Because that will serve as quite the relief to quite a few very, very up tight American workers
We can only hope.
6 comments:
This makes so much sense. I love that you are addressing something that we have become too engulfed in to draw attention to. Our society is obsessed with working and much is missed. When you work too much, you social life is compromised, your home life is comprimised, so much is lost. Blackberry's do add to that by bringing your work home to your family, never taking you away from the work that you thought you left when you went home.
I can't even imagine having a job that would need to reach me 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I was actually looking into getting a Blackberry but only for pleasure purposes. I guess I should wait until I have a real job that will give me my own Blackberry because i'll probably never want to look at one again. I definitely agree with the fact that a Blackberry would ruin your relationship with your children and spouse when you're older. I'm thankful my parents don't work in the type of job that requires a Blackberry, but my mom does have a phone that she gets every couple of week for emergencies. That week that she has the phone is a high stress time for her, so i can't even imagine her constantly having it.
Many of my friends this summer picked up the new consumer friendly Blackberry "Curve". They often gave lame excuses as it will help me schedule for school and the keyboard is easier to text on for reasons on getting the phone. But, it's the fact that the Blackberry now gives off a sense of..."maturity"? I really hate it though because every email that comes through their inbox has to be alerted. One of my friends can't even tell me when she's done for the day until she consults her blackberry.
I like how your blog was almost like reading a narrative. I agree with you that it is overkill for someone to have a blackberry on all the time because of their job, however in some cases it may be absolutely necessary (think doctors...). To address what Meghan brought up, I use my planner every day and cannot tell you when I'm free unless I consult it. In my case it may be easier to have a blackberry because my phone, which I take everywhere anyway, would already be combined with my calendar. It may just be a matter of convenience for some people.
I agree with your position about how being connected 24/7 is unhealthy. I think the phone companies in general have caught on to this trend and now make even more phones that are unable to be turned off without taking the battery out. On the other side, I can't deny that I haven't been sucked into the material world as far as having a phone goes. On a day when I so much as go to class without my phone I tend to feel lost, as if I might miss a text message from a friend about something important that couldn't wait until after class. Phones are definitley a major 'mediator' in society these days.
I completely agree with you on this one Stefan. Last February I started a job that gave blackberries to all of the bosses and managers. I was very envious of them at first (sad to say) because they really did make the people look important. But they all said the same thing you did. They hated them because they had no way to escape from their work lives. I feel much the same way about computers sometimes because of their capabilities. I always feel like work would be so much easier without them because there would be so much less we could do. I'm sure teachers would come up with something though...
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