If y'all don't know what a Blackberry is, then consider yourself way lucky. A Blackberry is a mobile device (little bigger than a telephone) that not only works like a telephone but also integrates with your Outlook desktop and delivers you your daily calendar and ALL your email everywhere you go. That's right, email follows me everywhere I am.
So far, I have done a reasonably good job of managing my Blackberry obsession. When I get home from work I may check it a few times if I know my team is working or there is an ongoing crisis that requires my attention but for the most part, when I'm home, I'm home.
However, since May has been a crazy out of the office experience, I have started using the Blackberry a whole bunch since it is the only way I can get my email whilst on the go. And since I was away from home it didn't impact my family.
Yesterday, I went to the train station for my trip into London. I left 1/2 earlier than the day before because I didn't want to be late again. I got to Slough no problems. Had 5 minutes to wait on the platform for the next train. I walked down towards the end of the platform fully expecting a long train to arrive. I made a couple of calls and started reading and responding to email. Just when I finished, I looked up to realise, that the platform was empty. All the other passengers had boarded the train that was now pulling out of the station.
I had missed my train! It was a shorter train than I had expected so I hadn't seen it pull up. Train stations are notoriously noisy so I hadn't heard it. And clearly the concentration of using the tiny keyboard sapped all the attention this little ol brain could muster.
Luckily another train arrived in the next 5 minutes which I boarded. Unfortunately, it was a slow train and stopped at every stop between Slough and London Paddington. Miraculously, I made it to my conference with 2 minutes to spare!
4 comments:
Be carefull! There is a new disease called Blackberryitis. It effects your wrists, thumbs, and attention spam.
LD; I can only imagine. The train must be miraculously quiet or you have a mighty strong power of concentration.
May I start calling my senior moments Blackberry moments even if i don't have one?
Steph - ...and spelling :)
Not sure if it is spelling or typing. :)
Trains don't tend to be quiet and I have the attention span of a newt. I credit self absorption and perhaps a bit of obsessesive compulsive disorder. I will add Balckberryitis to my list of physical ailments. Somethings gotta kill me eventually. And a whole bunch of things are going to make living difficult. Ah, I feel another blog coming on!
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