When someone says that they "need" a blackberry, I must question them. Really, you need it? Like water, and food and air? Or is it really that you need to feel important. So that when you're at a meeting you can say, "Hold on, let me check my blackberry, it never stops!" or at family functions, or church, or the supermarket. I mean, people will see it and think, wow, you are so freakin' important you can't get milk and bread without someone needing you!! Ugh. It's so ridiculous. Why can't we as a culture ever just disconnect (I say this while typing three IMs and watching TiVo but still...at least it's voluntary electronic bombardment)

It was recently suggested that I get a blackberry. I politely refused and then this person had to bring it up once again in front of a bunch of AVPs and VPs like, "I really think you should get one" to which I said the following "I don't think I'm important enough to warrant a blackberry. And come to think of it, has there been a major invention in the last twenty years that has signficantly changed our lives? I mean the car was early 20th century, the computer but what else?" He looked at me as if I had gone mad because all of a sudden this progressed into a major debate among the other people in the meeting--which was quite hilarious as they tried to convince each other of some major achievement only to be shot down and then to come up with some futuristic ideas. I didn't participate, but I did sit back and laugh at how I had successfully avoided getting a device that would literally put me in 24/7 contact with the who says things like, "That word is not part of our company's lexicon" or "Let's go after the low hanging fruit".