Might as well face it, I'm addicted ...

They say, “The first step is admitting it”.

So, here goes – I am addicted to my BlackBerry. Wow that felt good.

It didn’t take long, I only received it on Tuesday, but I can’t put it down. It is like a shiny new car or a cute new boyfriend (yes, I am married, bear with me) – I want to go everywhere with it and show it off.

Everyone is in awe. When I brought it to my sister’s house she said, “I’ve never seen one before,” and she oohed and aahed as I showed her what it could do. My friend Huntley remarked, “You know that thing is smarter than you.” Smarter than him too I guess, since he was unsuccessful in helping me change my ring tone. Joe is a BlackBerry veteran, but still harbored some obvious jealousy over my new and improved model.

“Those things will kill you,” they say. They are right. The power that it wields is frightening. You mean at any moment, with the roll of my thumb, I can reach nirvana? Ahem, I mean I can access my emails? Perhaps it is the innate desire to respond to the email “ding” while driving that will kill us.

My, how times have changed. A little technology has come a long way.

In middle school, I had computer class once a week. The room was always kept ice cold; to “keep the computers healthy” our teacher would say. There were only a dozen or so computers in the room, so we had to share. I couldn’t differentiate the DOS from the desk. Thankfully Erika Miscio sat next to me. She was a whiz!

In high school, I took a keyboarding class and I couldn’t resist the desire to look at the keyboard despite the warnings that if I didn’t look at the teacher, I would fail. Memorizing the keyboard was the goal. Lucky for me, I had one of my fingers smashed between two field hockey sticks during a game and I was allowed special privileges on the keyboard. Since one finger was set in this metal contraption with lots of tape, I couldn’t be expected to master keyboarding with only 9 fingers.

In the nineties when I was in college, I was re- introduced to working on a computer and the concept of a computer lab. I embraced the technology of fixing mistakes without using white out and I never looked back.

In graduate school – after being bombarded with email assignments and online discussion boards, I revolted briefly and wrote a paper about the longevity of the greeting card and handwritten communication. Of course, I had to type it to submit it so my battle was uphill all the way.

When I started teaching Speech Communication at the college level I was asked to teach an online version of the course. Yes, you heard correctly – I taught a speech communication course online. And, that is when it hit me. We are all slaves to our computer, will our children be the same?

Oops, I can hear my BlackBerry humming. How did I ever live with out it? Oh, that was when I had a life.

No BlackBerry was injured during the writing of this column. Email Courtney at courtneynaughton@hargray.com – an email account not connected to her BlackBerry, so be patient in waiting for a reply.