Incommunicado

I have always thought of myself as a modern girl who was up to date with the technological developments in the ever progressing whirlwind of life. I scoffed at my Mum as she struggled with her first mobile phone, I laughed outright the first time my Nan hitched her handbag up to her ear to see if she was ringing and I had a smug smile on my face when I guided my dad round his first PC.

The Goddess of modern technology... but somewhere along the way I lost it. This dawned on me when faced with a frown from my younger brother, "your phone doesn't even play music - that’s lame." I, Stephi Elle am 27 years old and I don’t own a blackberry.

When questioned by my peers I hear myself spinning the same excuse, "well my phone does the job." Followed by a desperate, "all I need to do is text and call, I don’t need all this new fangled technology.' Oh. God. I’m my Mother.

‘Sent using BlackBerry®’ – more and more of my emails have this little tit bit of information on the bottom. I never realised one sentence could cause envy, jealousy and shame all at the same time.

I am in two minds if I even want one, my old Sony Ericsson has been so reliable, a good staple in my life. It’s been dropped down stairs, in toilets, in pints and been in three pieces on the floor at the end of many a drunken night.
I'm attached to it – it’s seen me through some tough times - it's been the messenger throughout many a broken relationship, many a great relationship and it’s proved a worthy gossip transmitter.

I mean, am I even ready for a Blackberry? There have been many a time when I’ve looked at my ringing phone and, as much as I love the person calling, just not had the energy to answer. I've screened it and called back later, explaining I wasn’t near my phone. They always find this hard to believe, as everyone is always near their phone, it’s a mobile – why wouldn’t they be?

Is such a high level of availability really necessary? I like leaving my phone upstairs and going back to two missed calls and a text, I like not being able to see my work emails on the weekend. And I like logging in to hotmail on a Sunday to see that five people have emailed me... so what if three of these are selling Viagra, it’s just nice to see that little blinking ‘mail’ icon!

With a blackberry you have all this at your fingertips at all times, there’s no little bubble of excitement when you log on… because you’re permanently logged on. I’m just not sure I’m ready for that heavy load of communication just yet...