The Face of Evil – the Blackberry
I got on the train and found a seat near the window. I heard noises and turned to see a very young and attractive young woman toting a suitcase behind her. You could see from her face instantly that she was hugely irritated at something or someone. I would have thought carrying a suitcase around with you might be what ruins your day but it soon became obvious that she was irritated with someone or something else and that her rolling suitcase might just have been her usual briefcase. You see that a lot now these days. You see people who apparently carry their entire office on wheels behind them.
No, she was obviously irritated at a significant other of some sort. I am going to guess it was a boyfriend because I have only ever seen a woman get that upset at a man. We men have the ability to do that to women like nothing else. She soon sat down and pulled out a cell phone. She made a call and began talking too quite for me to hear but definitely in an animated and angry manner. I believe I heard the f-word bandied about a few times. She hung up the phone and it was then that the truly remarkable thing started to happen.
She began having one of the most constant and angry text-message conversations I have ever seen. Her thumb was flying across that phone keypad like lightning. I had never in my life seen anyone text message that fast in my life. Then, just when I was amazed by that, she pulled out what I think has become another true face of evil in this world. She pulled out her Blackberry device. She began typing on that next. She would then put the cell phone in her purse for a few minutes, type on her Blackberry and then pull the cell phone back out and type like crazy on that again. At one point she had her cell phone to her ear and making some kind of phone call while also typing a message on her Blackberry device. It was truly amazing to watch.
By the time we had pulled into Union Station she seemed to have calmed down. She made another phone call and said, “I love you, too” at the end of it. I imagined at the other end of that line was a guy who was saying things like, “I’m sorry. I’m such a jerk.” He probably still really had no clue what he had done to set her off but she was calm and all was right with the world.
See, I think Blackberry devices are part of what is ruining things around here. There was a time when you had to actually wait until you reached your destination and find a pay phone and make a call that way to someone. You had to wait until you reached your office to answer e-mails, if you even had e-mails. Before e-mails I guess people used smoke signals, I’m not really sure. I do know that with that damn Blackberry device people now carry their e-mails and cell phone with them in the same package. I still am not sure why people would need two cell phones, though, although I imagine one is probably company issued and strictly for company business while the other must be for personal use.
This is what I am talking about when I say that people need to put other things first. I just saw a story on “60 Minutes” about how the American work week standard is now 60 – 80 hours. That is completely insane. She talked to a couple who do work and answer e-mails at one and two in the morning. This married couple confessed that they often sit side-by-side on the couch but each of them has a laptop and they are working instead of talking to each other.
Priorities, people. Priorities. Close up the laptop. Shut off the Blackberry and the cell phones and play with your daughter, talk to each other, go out and do something.
I have my own cell phone etiquette that I follow. I rarely bring a cell phone into a restaurant with me. I hate sitting at a table next to some idiot shouting into his cell phone. I make sure to shut the thing off if I bring it into a movie theater. I try not to bring one into a baseball game with me, but I do sometimes and then try not to use the thing during the course of the game. I like being disconnected for a while. The friend I met up with at that baseball game had his Blackberry with him and made phone calls with it. Cut the tether!
I remember when I got my first cell phone. It was a Christmas present and I remember thinking how cool and small it looked. Of course, now, such a phone would be laughed at. It was one of those Motorola gray flip phones. Completely analog. With a battery that lasted maybe two hours even when you weren’t using it. I made one call with it the day I got it just to see what it was like and then I barely used the damn thing. Not that many years later and my primary phone is my cell phone. Could you even use one of those old Motorola flip phones anymore? You know, should you find a demonstration model in a museum somewhere?
I see people wearing those damn devices in their ears all the time. I know people who work in call centers who have their headset covering one ear and the ear bud that connects to their cell phone in the other ear. How is it possible that we can be this connected and yet someone more isolated than ever? That same couple I talked about on “60 Minutes” said they often instant message each other across the house instead of talking to each other.
I think people need to stop using those Blackberry’s once they leave the office. It’s just that simple. If you are done with work then you need to actually be done with work. That train ride home should be for laying back and closing your eyes and slowly washing the day at the office off of you. That’s what I used to use it for when I took the train. It was a chance to sort of down-shift and become more like the actual person I am when I am not at work.
My friends will tell you I am nearly and impossible person to get hold of. I rarely answer my phone when I am home. This is mostly because I am on the phone all day long. The last thing on my mind when I get home is getting back on the phone again. I am not a phone person and never have been. I hate making phone calls.
So, my advice? Put down the Blackberry. Not long ago it almost looked like the Blackberry devices might become useless thanks to some strange lawsuit I never fully understood. I think that could have been the best thing to happen to the American worker in a long time.
