BlackBerry v Facebook

Which of the above is the best technology? Facebook gets my vote and not simply because it’s free.

I worry about BlackBerries and other BlackBerry-style hand-held devices. I worry about what they are doing to people, destroying the ability to concentrate while creating a world of ever-shortening attention spans.

They increase anxiety as people forever check their emails. They encourage ignorant behaviour when people in meetings devote more of their attention to their BlackBerries than they do to those speaking in the room. They destroy the art of conversation and trample over nuance. They are immune to sensitivity and encourage a Spock-like approach to emotion.

It’s fitting that I should mention the Star Trek character, Mr Spock, since the phrase “beam me up Scotty” which I don’t think was ever actually uttered in the series, but which became, nevertheless, one of the most frequently quoted remarks, heralded the BlackBerry era since it was uttered in to a hand-held device that turned out to be visionary in its conception.

I remember when some newspapers began to issue bleepers to their reporters. I never wanted one. It encouraged control freakery

Some may be attracted to BlackBerry for its convenience and the way it enables people to work any place any time.

But I don’t want to be contactable all the time. Nor do I seek the means to remain in constant contact. As it is there is too much communication via email, a lot of it lazy as people two and fro for message after message making an arrangement which they then change on a whim.

Facebook, on the other hand, is transforming the way we know people, infiltrating social behaviours in to our everyday lives, including our working lives. I’m getting to know more about the personalities of the people I’m dealing with much of the time. You can see the human face behind the business suit.

The horrible Linkedin, on the other hand, is no more than an on-line exchange of business cards. It does not provide the virtual space for human interaction in the way that Facebook does.

The best feature on the whole of Facebook is a little box that says your name and invites you to say something about yourself at any particular moment. So, on my page it says “Richard is….” I look at this quite a lot and ask myself questions: What’s my mood just now? What’s my immediate concern? What am I doing? It’s a little indulgence on a site that invites self-indulgence in an age when we need to be emancipated from the commoditisation of people and work.

Returning to the heading of this blog, it's no contest really: Facebook is a social enabler; the BlackBerry is downright anti-social.

So be my Facebook friend by all means but don’t expect instant responses from a BlackBerry. It ain't going to happen.