CrackBerry Panic!

Posted 2 years 5 weeks ago by Jim Lakely

By the time you read this, the latest great BlackBerry panic might already be over. Apparently, all BlackBerry devices, regardless of carrier, went ... well ... black for several hours on Monday -- leaving some 12 million thumb-tapping addicts nervously tapping their fingers on their kneecaps.

I don't own a BlackBerry. Indeed, I haven't even had a cell phone since the one I had at a previous job was turned in upon leaving said job. So I can't really relate to quotes such as this:

"Everyone's in crisis because they're all picking away at their BlackBerrys and nothing's happening," Turner said. "It's almost like cutting the phone cables or a total collapse in telegraph lines a century ago. It just isolates people in a way that's quite phenomenal."

Isolated? Um ... the phone still works, right? Remember when you used to actually talk to people?

Then there's this:

"I cannot believe this happened again," [a guy quoted in the story] said as he got off a plane. "I'm on the road 300 days a year. My entire life is in my BlackBerry -- my family life, my professional life, my emotional life, everything. ... They're not allowed to do this to me."

Actually, "they" are. Uninterrupted BlackBerry service isn't an entitlement in the United States -- yet.

Regardless, I think it might be time to reassess your priorities when you find yourself saying that your "entire life" -- even your "emotional life" -- depends on a BlackBerry. But I guess they don't call them "CrackBerries" for nothing.