This is a Blackberry. It is also one of Satan’s favorite ways to ruin your life. We were all moving along quite nicely in our careers before the Blackberry. Money was getting made. Business was getting done. Then one day, someone said, “You know what would be great? If I could be connected to work even when I’m not at work!” So was born the Blackberry.
I’m not at all shocked that someone developed the Blackberry. After all, what employer wouldn’t love to have constantly connected employees who can solve business problems from the office, from the car, even from the bathtub? There’s really no down-side from the employer’s perspective.
What shocks me about the Blackberry is that employees bought into it. It’s really one of those things that makes you go “hmmm?” Where’s Arsenio and his long-ass finger when you need him? Employees of America essentially sold all their free-time for a convenient way to check e-mail.
Don’t get me wrong, my free time is for sale, for lease, and for loan. For the right price you can absolutely get some of it. But it’s trading for a lot more than a nifty gadget. The Blackberry is the worst deal since Manhattan got sold for trinkets. It ruins marriages, makes children hate their fathers, and is the leading cause of adult on-set ADD. I’d dig up the statistics to prove all that, but my Blackberry’s vibrating my son is calling me.
