Now BlackBerry is a Film

I’ve had a crush on technology since I first read Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Since then, all other tech felt like diminishing returns. That tired trope of the book version of anything being better then the movie version of anything still applies, even for own life story (assuming we are not living in a simulation).

I remember feeling burned after getting a Palm Pilot. It was fun for a while, but about as useful long term as a Speak & Spell. I know people who only have Apple products for all their tech needs. They are trapped in a maze that Steve Jobs made sexy. The great fake PC vs. Apple struggle for dominance now feels like a consumer shill of a different color. So many retro thoughts & feelings. AOL CD-ROM sent through the mail, Internet Explore, GEOCities, Y2K, Friendster, Blogger, floppy discs, cordless phones, the sidekick, Zip drives. I could go on.

BlackBerry has a special place in my serotonin greedy self. There was a physical tactile connection you developed with the mini keyboard.. I could message on my berry a million times faster. I was a self-admitted CrackBerry junkie. You would have to pry the tech wrapped in a plastic case out of my cramped hand by days end.

This was before iPhone or Android. Before wi-fi and Facebook. I don’t think it was better times and certainly doesn’t feel like a film was necessary to talk about its origin story, but I understand scraping the bowl for content when you’ve got nothing. But it does have one powerful element in play. The nostalgia factor is huge and feels as pervasive as say a fungus that could wipe out humanity.