I said I would never get a BlackBerry. I actually swore it. I have had no less than 4 mobile phones at a go and one time I didn’t even realize I had lost one until a week later! At first I decided to get a mobile phone for the sole purpose of being able to be reached by family and friends, and also to call them from time to time. I later got a second phone in order to save costs when I realized that most of my friends were on a particular network which was insanely expensive for my first phone’s network. I got a third phone when my dad introduced the family to a special package on yet another different network. The package allowed all family members to call each other 24/7  for ‘free’ whilst paying a fixed monthly fee. With 3 justified phones in my posession, why the hell did I bother to get a 4th phone then?  A brand new network in Nigeria boasted of offering unique phone numbers for a limited period – so I got a number with my date of birth! Sadly, I’ve not used that phone ever since. Cue the BlackBerry.

This ‘smartphone’, in my opinion, has waited patiently on the track and taken the baton from Facebook to complete the race…to end all physical contact between humans. Yes, I believe that the BB is the craze that is here to stay. Not even the I-Phone with all its cool apps is gaining as much popularity in Nigeria as the BB is. Well, the major networks in Nigeria have picked up on this and so you see billbaords promoting BBs only (Samsung and Nokia have been left to promote their Wave and X5 alone). It is increasingly common to see a BB associated with the following calibre of people: Managing Directors (and their PAs), Executives (and their PAs), Fashionistas, Facebook addicts, Twitter Die-hards and of course, spoilt teenagers with no jobs and rich parents.

This beckons the question, ‘Where do I fit in all this?’ My sisters ganged up on me and bullied me into getting a BB or risking not being with the in-crowd. If being with the in-crowd means constantly fiddling with my phone as I try to break my highest score in BrickBreaker then I don’t think I’m missing out much. Facebook just got even more accessible. Every few seconds the BB flashes red and you could be sure that one of your 500 friends has changed his status update or added a comment. 

What happened to the days when you could wield your mobile phone comfortably with one hand and press keys that were a close match to the size of your fingertips? Now, BB users not only struggle to use the tiny keys but also tend to use two hands which leaves you little chance to multi-task i.e. caressing your partner at the same time, changing the channel on your TV, taking a leak or wiping your ass, as the case may be.

But is the BB really all that bad? Perhaps the use of the word ‘PING’ gets on my nerve…just a teeny bit 😉