Blackberry mobile phones on display at the new Telus flagship store in downtown Toronto April 1, 2011.Moe Doiron/The Globe and Mail
Just when RIM announced that its BlackBerry outages are over, my Torch stopped receiving emails. I receive about 200 quasi-important messages a day, so you're probably thinking that I'm ready to start an #OccupyRIM movement and race to Waterloo to stage a protest about how the company ruined my life and my business for the past few days.
Even if a demonstration isn't in my future, you might think I have joined thousands of people on Twitter and Facebook who are up in arms about their recent BlackBerry problems, some calling this week "The Great BlackBerry Outage of '11."
Alas, I feel no RIM hatred. I have no desire to beat up on Co-CEO Wonderboys Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie (after all, that wouldn't be very Canadian of me). As I saunter through today's newspaper headlines I try to muster up the same shock and outrage as other journalists about this "end-of-the world" scenario, but I prefer to chuckle at the lighter articles such as this one from Jane Taber, " Blackberry outage sends MPs and Hill staffers 'back to 1985' " with reports of politicians having to pick up, wait for it, an actual telephone to get work done (gasp!).
While I love technology as much as the next gal, I sometimes worry about what it's doing to us humans. Actually, I worry less about how my son and other kids play with tech toys, and more about how full grown adults are slaves to these tiny electronic devices. I spend most of my day near a computer or smartphone, but if iOS 5 is taking forever to update on my iPhone or my (mostly frivolous) BBM messages aren't going through, I can recognize that this is indeed a #firstworldproblem.
Beyond my tiny screen, there is a whole world of issues that I should care more about. I'd prefer to use technology and social media to highlight some of these causes, and work around any minor technical problems for a few days if that's what it takes.
Yes, despite our connectivity issues, life goes on. If you tried to email me this morning when my BlackBerry was down, I apologize for not getting back to you promptly. I hope you are doing OK. Rest assured, I was knee deep in other work. I took advantage of the outage: Instead of joining the outrage online, I spent an hour building a highly complex and colourful castle with my two-year-old son, complete with a covered garage for his new race car. The best part? No wireless connection required.
Was your service interrupted? Tell us what you did with the time you normally lavish on your CrackBerry?