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Acorn Arcade forums: News and features: Addiction or Necessity? The CrackBerry Effect
 

Addiction or Necessity? The CrackBerry Effect

Posted by Mark Thompson on 09:00, 5/1/2007 |
 
It is amusingly ironic that a gadget designed to keep people ‘connected’ is in fact having the opposite effect. For many, the compulsive checking of emails and internet browsing that BlackBerry devices afford are ‘disconnecting’ users from family and friends.
 
Distracted home life, vacations where the spouse plays second fiddle: BlackBerries are very possibly the newest type of social vice. And it is, experts warn, a serious medical condition. So much so that treatment used to wean heavy users from their neurotic habit (who often cannot go more than a few minutes without checking their email) is similar to that of alcohol or drug addiction.
 
The BlackBerry has earned itself a nickname in honour of this formidable reputation: the ‘CrackBerry’, because its addictive qualities resemble those of crack cocaine. A fraught businessman can sit in Starbucks and juggle emails, internet browsing and cell phone calls on a single handheld device. While also feeding his caffeine addiction. It is convenient, efficient and saves time.
 
It is also, like the iPod, extremely iconic – the latest must-have fashion accessory with the added bonus of working extremely well. Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay has one. As do footballer Freddie Ljungberg and easyJet founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou.
 
But when a CrackBerry addict is caught without their BlackBerry, withdrawal symptoms appear: depression, anxiety, craving. A study, carried out by New Jersey’s Rutgers University School, claims that the BlackBerry is largely accountable for the recent increase in email and internet addiction, especially in the United States, which can be very harmful to mental health. ‘Addicts’ may require psychiatric care, much like that given to drug abusers.
 
But the question remains: addiction or necessity? Many over-worked, addicted users would argue that their employer is to blame; pressures of the job are why they check their email before even getting out of bed in the morning. Indeed, it is necessary to stay connected.
 
But when thumbs are working overtime in restaurants or bars during a sociable evening out, surely the only diagnosis is addiction? Undivided attention to those around them goes out the window; they are hopelessly lost without it.
 
Perhaps BlackBerries should come with a health warning. Sore thumbs, a distracted look, social outcast: the telltale signs of a BlackBerry addict don’t look good. If this accurately depicts you, it is time to put the gadget down.
 
  Addiction or Necessity? The CrackBerry Effect
  monkeyson2 (21:19 5/1/2007)
  epistaxsis (03:05 6/1/2007)
 
Phil Mellor Message #96736, posted by monkeyson2 at 21:19, 5/1/2007
monkeyson2Please don't let them make me be a monkey butler

Posts: 12380
I know one person who has failed to make it to the pub, and one year even turned up late to his own birthday celebration, because he was checking his e-mails (he has many accounts).

I'm not sure that the Blackberry is itself to blame, but it does make it easier to take your addiction with you...
  ^[ Log in to reply ]
 
keith dunlop Message #96780, posted by epistaxsis at 03:05, 6/1/2007, in reply to message #96736
epistaxsis

Posts: 159
heh - to geek or not to geek ;-)

glad to see that the communication revolution we've lived through still attracts luddites :-)
  ^[ Log in to reply ]
 

Acorn Arcade forums: News and features: Addiction or Necessity? The CrackBerry Effect