I have lived in New York for almost 5 years now. Before coming here, I had a plain old cell phone that could make and receive calls and send SMS messages. It was enough. It sufficed. Yet still I wanted more. I am a product of the wired world, a child of the Internet boom so I subscribe to new technology and the impact that it has on our ever shrinking world, the global village (both positive and negative).
Whereas our parents, the baby boomers, marvel at the many ways we are connected to our friends and how our lives are rehashed, replayed and broadcast on Facebook and Twitter, we, generation X, embrace and live on these new mediums. Our break-ups broadcast, un-friended by ex beaus, our every quip and whim posted for public reaction to the digital agora of New Rome. We opt into this, we subscribe to it. It is our choice. But is it the right one? If guns were the tools of the wild west, then the BlackBerry and iPhone are the new guns of the digital social age. But, did you ever stop to consider the implications this has on us as a society? Did you ever think about the harm this causes us? Are we addicted? I think so and I am concerned about where this is all going….
Jamyn got me thinking about this last night. We were having some banter at one of our favorite NY eateries – Bar Pitti, and he correctly and tactfully voiced his concern over my OCD phone behavior. They don’t call it a CrackBerry for nothing. He really got me thinking about how I am a slave to my cellular device, ready to left-hand pounce like a ponse at the slightest tone, vibration or flashing LED. Even in the day, I took some alone time to lie out on the West Side Highway and found myself instantly reacting to every breath my phone took. The net result, was that I didn’t relax at all. In fact, I was a nervous wreck because I let the horse ride me instead of riding the horse. Why did I have to react to every BlackBerry Messenger ping? I mean, it is not as if the sender knows what I am doing at that exact time. I could be busy and not able to respond. Yet, I chose to respond at light speed. This is common place for me and many people I know.
My BlackBerry spews social media applications ad nauseaum and I can tweet, gchat, bbm, facebook, geo locate and tag. I literally have no privacy, no boundaries, no let up. Worst of all, I opted in to all of this shit. Problem now is that I actually think I need it. “How will I live without BlackBerry Messenger?”. What would happen if I got rid of it all? Would I be eradicated from the social footprint of society? Would I somehow become irrelevant – a relic, a dinosaur just because I’m not permanently connected to the ether like a Borg alien from Star Trek who is wired into the collective consciousness? Why am I so scared to pull the plug? I am certain I am not alone in my ambivalence. I want to be involved but not at the expense of my peace of mind.
Here are today’s social norms:
- Meet a girl
- Google her on the off chance she is someone and ranks on search engines
- Facebook her (social stalking)
- Hope she accepts
- She accepts
- You meet for coffee/lunch/dinner/drinks
- You connect and feel a connection!
- You exchange PIN numbers and now you’re both on BlackBerry Messenger
- It all goes horribly wrong and next thing, she’s un-friended you from Facebook and deleted you from BlackBerry Messenger
- You have been digitally ostracized. Welcome to modern love (not as David Bowie foresaw…)
Jamyn is mos’ def’ right. I have lost my social etiquette. I sit at dinner with my opposable thumbs flickering away. I can’t even focus on anything because I’m constantly worrying about my FUCKING PHONE. I am sad. I feel ridiculous and my very good friend did me a huge favor last night. Huge.
I remember back in London as a boy, if friends wanted to reach me, they’d have to dial 954 1164 (no, my childhood number has no relationship to any of my online passwords). And, if I wasn’t at home, tough shit. Leave a message. Done.
But all of this got me thinking. Do people die from using their BlackBerry’s – I mean, I write emails on mine whilst crossing the road and I thought about statistics…. “How many deaths have occurred in the NY area from users crossing the road whilst CrackBerrying?” It must have happened right?
Not to mention, our thumbs were not supposed to be so active and with devices getting smaller and smaller, I can totally believe that one day our phones will be implants. Scary. So what has all of this rambling and thinking the past 24 hours resulted in? Have I made some decisions? Hell yeah. If I want to Tweet etc, I will do it from my laptop. I am not going to answer every stupid ping and noise on my phone – I will prioritize and focus on what’s important. BBM, Facebook, Twitter is a low-priority and can wait. Grace Jones sung about ‘Slave to the Rhythm’ and she was right… I am a slave. As of today, I am forming the new anti-social digital abolitionist movement and freeing myself of these digital chains. Call me, meet me but don’t tweet me or ping me. I have a life don’t you know!!
And with all that said, I’m now going to post the URL to this blog on my Twitter and Facebook pages. More thoughts on this will follow in the coming weeks (when I have the time). Thanks Jamyn!
