The Craze

Blackberries. They’re everywhere these days in Indonesia. Boyfriend and I have talked about the possibility of getting them before because it seems like 90% of our friends have. But we both agree that they seem to be less of a cellular phone and more of a social impediment. I have a friend who, not even exaggerating, can go through an entire dinner without looking up even one from his TWO Blackberries (as if one isn’t enough). As soon as he finishes messaging someone on one of them, he’s got 4 messages awaiting reponses on the other. We eat dinner with him almost every Saturday night. We haven’t talked to him in months.

Our pastor too. He has a Blackberry. Boyfriend and I don’t enjoy talking to him anymore, because the thing is attached to his hand and it takes precedence. Now, he’ll still pretend to have a conversation with you, but 85% of his attention is on messaging someone rather than actually listening to and engaging with you. He can make appropriate grunts in appropriate places, but his ability to communicate outside of Blackberry Messenger (BBM) has been reduced to just that - grunts. Lately, he’s even taken to preaching from his Blackberry. He sets it on the podium and uses some Bible app in lieu of an actual Bible, which would obviously be too burdensome to carry all the way up there.

I don’t blame this on Blackberry. I know several people - teenagers even! - who have healthy relationships with their Blackberries. But even they will claim that they spend more time online and messaging people now than they did before they got them.

Boyfriend and I have always agreed that we just don’t need that. Give us our plain old handphones, we’re not fancy or nothin.

Until tonight.

We’ve been trying to figure out summertime communication. Skype seemed like the way to go. But boyfriend doesn’t have internet at home. So he’d have to come to my house every time he wanted to call me. Or buy a modem for his computer. And a webcam, since his laptop is just old enough to not have one built in. That’s already almost $100. And even then, the internet in Central Java was not made to support video streaming - this is an actual fact - I talked to a guy from the internet company who explained to me in great detail why our internet is awful.

So our summertime communication is looking sketchy at best. But last night at dinner, boyfriend suggested Blackberries. Prices have come down. We can get cheap ones for about $100 each. And if we both sold our current phones, we could put that money toward buying a pair. Boyfriend had saved some money up in the hopes of getting a visa. I’ve saved for months in case we had to buy 2 plane tickets. His cell phone has one foot out the door anyways. Maybe it's time for an upgrade.

We wouldn’t have to rely on an unstable internet connection to talk, and we can use Blackberry Messenger from anywhere in the world. Granted, we couldn’t call, and I still wouldn’t be able to see his face for 2 months. But knowing that I can talk to him - even via SMS - anytime I want/need to is a happy thought. We’re not sure yet if we’ll actually do it. Honestly, I’ll feel kind of lame if we do, because I always tease my friends who buy Blackberries with some line about how they’ve succumbed to the trend. But really, this isn’t about my lameness - it’s about OUR lameness. And as long as we’re in it together, it’ll be OK.