After owning a Blackberry for several months, I quickly realized why people often referred to it as the “crackberry.” The phone was addicting. Every time the little red light blinked, I grabbed it. Did I get a new text? Any new emails coming in? I had become so addicted to my Blackberry that I couldn’t go a minute without checking it. To say I was obsessed would be an understatement. I didn’t care that there was no Siri to talk or no apps to install. My friends tried to persuade me to make the switch. They scrolled through their apps to show me what I was missing.
Even with all of their compelling words, I still couldn’t do it.
The Blackberry boasts one feature that to me beats the wide range of apps that the iPhone offers. My favorite? The keypad. I prefer pressing an actual key rather than tapping a screen. The buttons allow me to type (click-click), proof and send a email in under five minutes. The few times I tried typing on the iPhone, autocorrect took over and completely rewrote my sentence’s. Forget it. I had zero interest in fighting with a phone over what I wanted to write. The Blackberry never corrected me. I would type, hit send and it would be done. The thought of switching to phone sans keypad wasn’t working for me. The Blackberry wasn’t the most reliable phone but I didn’t care. I couldn’t leave it.
I stood by my Blackberry despite its continuous overheating and intermittent shutting down. Every time something went wrong, someone tried to intervene and convince me to end the relationship. They assured me there was something better waiting on the other side. I heard what they said but, I couldn’t break up with it! After all, I was in a committed two year contract and I couldn’t get out without a large financial penalty. So, I waited and continued to deal with all of the usual Blackberry problems. We had been on a good streak for some time until one day when it took things to a whole new level. I was in the middle of a conversation and all of a sudden the call dropped, the screen went black and the phone started to burn up. I knew at that moment that I let this go on for too long. It was time to make a change. I walked into the Verizon store ready to leave the click-click of the Blackberry behind for the sleek silence of the iPhone. I explained to the sales person what my situation was. I was hoping that she would tell me things were going to get better. Unfortunately, she told me that it was time to move on to something new. It was hard to digest, but I knew she was right. We talked about what was next for me and minutes later she presented me with a perfect black box that contained a ridiculously cool looking phone. After the details were worked out and I committed to a two year contract, I walked out of the store with a sense of relief. I put the dead blackberry in my bag and moved onto the keyless, minimalistic, problem free iPhone 5. So far, things are better than ever.
