Crackberry has been the deemed the term for a person who is addicted to their blackberry (or Smartphone). The person who can’t sit through dinner without simultaneously responding to an email, or get out of bed without first checking messages from under the covers. In a world where everything can be found right at your fingertips, it’s hard not to be addicted to technology. And now that 35% of Americans own a Smartphone (statistics taken from a recent PEW poll), it’s becoming more difficult to ignore that blinking red light on your phone.

Are we sabotaging ourselves by being constantly available? Are we minimizing time spent doing other tasks, or even compromising our own deserved relaxing time so we can respond immediately to that text message or email? The answer is yes. Technology has become the catalyst for our addicted. People are now demanding instantaneous responses or feedback because they have the inclination that their message is being read the moment they hit ‘send’. I came across an article published in “Real Simple” and wondered what the consensus was for appropriate response time/whether to respond at all. I believe that no matter what the message, big or small, a response of some sort should be administered. If the person took the time to send the message, then it clearly is of importance and should be treated that way. (For more information, please read http://simplystated.realsimple.com/2011/07/07/email-etiquette-tips/). And especially if you have a Smartphone, you may as well already consider yourself a crackberry and have the courtesy to respond to the message. Until the Western culture slows down it’s pace and changes the standards, people expect (and deserve) nearly instantaneous responses!

-Lisa Glover, Summer 2011 Intern

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 9th, 2011 at 12:48 pm and is filed under Penta Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.