My Blackberry, off to the electronic recycling farm in the sky

I was anti-laptop for many years, unable to understand why one would take one’s work with them everywhere one went. This was before the ubiquity of wireless and fun things to do on the internet. I’ve since embraced them, then rejected them again for their clunkiness and blatant steal-ability when they are in public.

I was anti-smartphone for years, having little desire to read work email during non-work hours. I also feel disgusted at the thought of taking on yet another bloated monthly charge.

And also also, I am getting increasingly impatient with people that cannot seem to stay off their fucking devices, answering texts and reading emails in the middle of spoken conversations with people who deserve their full attention; surfing Facebook and Tweeting instead of BEING in the NOW. Perhaps I’m passing into biddyhood in front of our eyes, but are we all free of impulse control? If grownups can’t exhibit the discipline to limit their screentime, what kind of role models are we to the young and impressionable?

Apologies to friends who have attachment to their devices. If you’re bothering me with your phone, I’ll tell you. Besides, you will never, EVER be as bad as that one party in LA I went to — the one where there were vast moments of silence, in the middle of a packed party, while people obsessively nitwitted with their phones, completely in their own (and presumably much more interesting) worlds.

A while back, Molly gave me her old Blackberry, which I used for calls and texting. I achieved harmony with all my devices for several months recently — new laptop, Blackberry for the communications, and iPod Touch for small-scale wireless needs.

Then the Blackberry died. And I bit the bullet and got an iPhone and took on the dreaded monthly charge. Molly describes having an iPhone as “the biggest ripoff you can’t live without.”

I’ve had it nine days and have already gotten a data usage capacity warning. Oy veh, already I’m throwing money at the damn thing. At least I’m trying hard not to be a hypocrite and am avoiding using it while in human company.

Okay, and there’s a couple things I LOVE about it, but that’s for later. I’m stewing in my biddyhood for the time being.