Op-Ed Rough Draft

BlackBerry?… My new BFF!

BY: Camila Medina Noriega

It was a typical Monday morning: cold, dull, and boring.

Marco was sitting at the breakfast table surrounded by the best company he could desire: his parents, the Johnsons. He could hear them laughing, discussing the plans for the week, he could hear them babble about the weather and even say some intangible thing about the vacations, or at least, he pretended to listen.

“Marco, put your phone away” his mother said over the table, “breakfast is a family moment, you can’t expect us to ignore you.”

Oh God, he thought as he continued to BBM his best friend Paul without ever looking up, Why can’t she ever leave me alone?

“Your mother told you to put your phone away,” his father hissed; there was no answer, “Marco we are talking to you, stop playing with your phone.”

A honk from a bus brought Marco back to reality. Without a word to his parents or sister he grabbed his bag and lunchbox and proceeded to catch the school bus. His fingers never left the soft keys of his Blackberry.

Like Marco, teenagers nowadays have a problem, a problem that basically revolves around technology and the misuse of it. The famous BlackBerrys, I-phones, and Smartphones that were once used solely by people who needed them are now as common as a pair of socks on a cold morning.

BlackBerrys have become the new teenager’s best friend and an exiting new trend to follow because it looks “cool”. Teenagers do everything with their BlackBerrys: Some sleep with them, others called them their baby and others depend on this little device so much that they can’t stand the thought of living without it.  

But why? Why, why, why, why?  

Well, because Blackberry, as a modern cell phone, is highly addictive.

A BlackBerry with all its gadgets and applications creates in young minds like that of a teenager dependence. The well-known BBM Messenger is the living proof of this. How many teenagers do we see conversing intently through their phones at school, at work and even at home?

Many.

 A lot.

Thousandths.    

Indeed, BBM apps generate dependence in teens. However, not only does BBM Messenger influence addiction but also apps like Internet, What’s Up, YouTube media player and many others generate dependence between teens.    

As you might be well aware of, the brain of a teen is still in full growth and development. Compared to the brain of an adult, a teenager’s brain size is almost the same, and his neurons, cells and capacity of thinking and reasoning is highly comparable, but a teenager’s ability to think for himself without any factor influencing his decision is still malleable.

This is why BlackBerrys are so successful.

With the promise of a better life, an easier life, these devices are sold like fresh bread and people who buy them do not think on the repercussions that might come from overusing them.

For instance, other than the well-known fact that BlackBerrys generate addiction and dependence who, reading this article, has ever thought that BlackBerrys hinder communication?  

None right?

Well, it does.

BlackBerrys hinder communication between teenagers, their parents, their friends and even unknown people that have just entered into a social circle. So how come we don’t realize this? Well, because we don’t accept the fact that we are highly addicted to our phones.

Think for a moment in this situation.

When you are lying in your bed doing homework, cursing your teachers for having send a lab report, a project, an exam, a vocabulary test all for the next day what is a common thing that you do?

Can’t think of it? It’s easy: you continuously look at your phone.

If you have a BlackBerry you know what I am talking about. The anxious feeling you experiment when you send a BBM to one of your friends and you consider whether your friends will answer your message is always present and when the sound comes out of the phone… VOILÀ! You feel happy again.

This, my dear friends, is addiction combined with dependence.

Now think of this second situation.

Imagine yourself dining with your family. You just missed a night with your friends because your parents wanted to spend some “quality time” with you at home. Suddenly your BlackBerry starts to vibrate and the light that indicates that you have a BBM Message lights on. What do you do? Do you answer, begin a conversation with your friend and stop listening to your parents chatter? Or do you tell your friend that you are with your parents and can’t talk?

Most probably you would choose the first option; talking to your friend.

This is the effect that BlackBerrys have on teenagers and their ability to communicate with others; it hinders communication.

Hinders communication? Some of you might think. It does not hinder communication because I can multitask while BBM.

Actually you cannot multitask. No one can. The attention spasm and brain of a human being is only capable of retaining a small piece of information at a time and of doing one thing, fully concentrated, and only one thing alone.

Therefore, when a teenager is BBM he is not paying attention to anything that surrounds him/her, they are so mesmerized by the magic of fast messages that they forget to absorb their environment and this, dear teenagers, is the beauty of the BlackBerry.

So Blackberry? ... My new BBF!

I don’t think so.