
A colleague put an article on my desk this morning with the title “BlackBerry Backlash Building…”. It was printed in today’s Australian Financial Review.
It was written by Fiona Smith and made reference to research conducted by Judi MacCormick and Kristine Dery from the University of Sydney. The essence of their findings was the riveting fact that smart PDA’s take up every waking moment in our lives. Safe to say, the article wasn’t overly positive about the effect of Research In Motion’s killer device.
My disclaimer here is that I am an avid fan of the BlackBerry. I’ve used one for years and use one today when all our team use iPhones.
Smith reports in her article that…
“users tend to be unnecessarily distracted by inconsequential emails, delegate less, put too little thought in their email responses, and are sometimes there only in the physical sense when other people really need their full attention”.
Hogwash.
You could argue that nearly 99.9% of all emails we receive are inconsequential. I mean, when was the last time you received an email that you thought, “holy hell, this one’s a cracker. I need to print it off, save it and have one copy framed for my grandchildren”.
That’s why a BlackBerry is so useful. Because most emails can be handled with a simple “yes”, “no” or “maybe later” response, all of which can be sent in an instant. The “delete” key also works wonders too.
And as far as only “being at meetings in the physical sense”. Same argument. When was the last time you had a meeting that as soon it was over, you went up to everyone and personally thanked them for their contribution, wrote a hand written card to HR saying that this company was a real gem and later that night, you reminisced about the actual event with your better half, with a tear in your eye?
You see, total frog shit.
Most meetings are a complete waste of time. I can only concentrate for about 5 minutes in any meeting. And forget my BlackBerry distracting me. If my laptop is with me - all bets are off. As an aside, Seth Godin provides his thoughts on meetings here.
Actually, common sense dictates that if you’re at something important like the football, a divorce settlement, a Britney Spears concert or the purchase of major power tool, you’ll at least turn your phone or PDA to silent. I can actually go for a full hour without looking at it, but only if I am well and truly distracted.
Look, what Ms. Smith, Ms. MacCormack and Ms. Dery all forget is that wireless devices are now an intrinsic part of our DNA. We can’t switch off - even if we wanted to. And anyway, I have no desire to be disconnected to the outside world. Ok, I’ll admit it - I’ve spoken on my phone or looked at an email when I’ve been on a chairlift on the family skiing holiday. I check email on my laptop at home every night. Hell, I’ve even gone to bed with the damn thing.
It’s called living in 2008. Period.
But I do know one thing. I do still control the device rather than it controlling me. I might only have a marginal advantage over it - but it’s what I’m comfortable with.
I’ve set it at night to switch off at midnight and come on again at 6am. I don’t have it in the bedroom - although I know currency traders who sleep with their devices. And so they should. It’s their business.
I’m a relatively young parent and I’ve got much bigger issues with small humans creeping into our bed at night, rather than my BlackBerry vibrating quietly in the corner. At least I know when it makes a noise, it’s only for a set time. My 5-year old daughter on the other hand, can scream for an indefinite period.
Smith goes on to cite,
“research commissioned by Hewlett-Packard in the UK three years ago found that a person’s IQ falls by 10 points when they are trying to multi-task with their BlackBerry. The device would then have the same impact on their performance as the smoking of a joint or insomnia”
Most of my friends, who after smoking a doobie (and who admit to inhaling), are far more charming, far more literate and just plain old funny as shit as opposed to when they are boringly sober. Or something like this.
First of all, the whole statement is dubious because you have to question the impartiality of the research when someone like HP (who incidentally don’t make a killer device like RIM do) is involved. What was their real motive? It was hardly good corporate citizenship.
Actually, I bet the entire research project was overseen by a bunch of angry lesbians who really have an issue with BlackBerry’s because they represent all the evil that is contained within the male species. What they wanted the research to really say is “that all men are dumb”. Or something like that. I’ve probably overstepped the mark here. Screw it.
Lets move on.
The article then starts to get knee deep in it as Smith and co. pontificate…
“BlackBerry’s were introduced into organisations without any clear strategic type of thinking”.
Tell me, do you think the internet was introduced to society with any clear strategic thinking? Was radio, TV, were 90% plus of all corporate Customer Relationship Management systems (CRM)?
Nope. Nope. And Nope again (twice).
You don’t need an army of McKinsey consultants to tell you that smart PDA’s would be beneficial.
Back to the research in the UK 3 years ago. Well, in this day and age of technology, 3 years is an eternity. Actually, 3 years ago, YouTube didn’t exist. Google hadn’t gone public. Facebook hadn’t even been born. I’d actually like to know what age group these smart researchers interviewed? Generation X or Y or did they talk with a bunch of baby boomers who had to get up to go pee 3 times during the one hour focus group.
Ask a teenager to give up their mobile phone and see what happens. Actually, I bet if you told any kid today that the new rule of the house is their phones would be restricted to voice calls only (and that the text or SMS function would be disabled), there would be a global revolt. Parents would be locked in cars and basements and all manner of threats would be shouted from every rooftop.
Kids don’t talk on phones anymore. They grunt. But the little f@#ckers can text. Man, can they text.
You may as well try and hold back the tide. You won’t change this - doesn’t matter what you do. We’ve started to see this rabid behaviour with our 7-year old son. He has a Nintendo DS. The child is addicted to the thing. He could spend all weekend on it if you let him. We could move house and he wouldn’t know it. Especially if he was engrossed in his favourite game where the whole object is to remove the dragons head with a chainsaw. You get my point.
Nope, to me, the whole article by Smith is a croc. Nothing more but a desperate attempt to cling to the past.
As the article starts to round the final bend, she states,
“People who feel they are only needed for 10 minutes in an one-hour meeting might feel justified in fiddling with their phone under the table, but they are missing out on the other things that are said - or are unspoken - at the meeting”.
Like what? Most people would be arrested for saying out loud what they really think at meetings. I know I would and I cross the line more than most. It’s the benefit of being a benevolent dictator.
My suggestion for CrackBerry addicts is simple. Get all your email going to your device. Embrace it. Drive your friends mad. I just figured out today how to get my GMail, and other work email going to my 8100. And its a cracker. The thing is literally going beserk.
This is 2008. The internet and wireless devices are here to stay. Soon, we’ll be at the mercy of our kids, who embraced this shit long ago. We may as well work out how to talk with them, on their level if we want to be fed, bathed and generally looked after in our old age.
This notion of “People filling up all the empty moments of their lives - which the researchers call ‘micro-boredoms’”, is poppycock. All the empty moments of my life are consumed by my kids yelling at me and my wife telling me what to do. And in a funny, masochistic kind of way, I’m actually ok with it.
And I wouldn’t go anywhere without my BlackBerry. And they’re ok with that.