I have been using the Blackberry for over ten years now (right from the days when it was looking like a pager with a wheel in it). I always used to think Blackberry is an innovative device which helps us stay on top of our emails all the time. What I have realized is that I have become like a robot, not the Rajinikanth Robot style, but more like the olden days Robot style, where the robots are told to do specific operations on specific commands.

Whenever I see the red light indicator on the blackberry or if I feel it is vibrating, my robotic mind is tuned by the master (Mr.Blackberry) to unlock the device and see if I have received an email.

Besides, there are times when I have noticed people walk into a restaurant to have some fun time together and the first thing they do after getting seated is check their blackberry for any new emails (I guess my master has not fine tuned me to that level and just configured me to be a zombie who reacts to the red light indicator or the vibrate action on the blackberry)

Here is the worst case scenario. I went with my wife and kid to Princeton downtown during the weekend and she was having my blackberry in her hand. Still I felt as though the blackberry was vibrating in my pocket. This is serious trouble and if not controlled then I think I will be ready to do anything for my master.

Like many other folks, I do not like to be controlled by any master. So I am taking the necessary steps to fix the problem.

So here are the things I have done:

1. I had earlier set my blackberry to vibrate on anything new – a phone call (yes, I dont like to be the source of noise levels where my nice ring tone might be a nuisance to someone else). I have reconfigured my blackberry to vibrate only on phone calls and not on anything else.
2. The display indicator light has been disabled and will not show any light when a new message arrives. If you are interested in knowing how to set these, it is done by creating a custom profile in your blackberry. If you would like me to post the steps for it, please do reply here and I will write a blog with the exact steps on creating the same.
3. I will check my blackberry once every hour. (btw, I have already tuned myself to drink a glass of water every hour, which gives me a chance to walk away from my computer and come back after a short walk. I am going to use this time to check whatever I want to check on my blackberry).

Though I use blackberry for almost everything I do (mails, phone, browsing, IM, maps, blogging, server restart, jira access, alarm clock, rss feeds, etc) I think it is time this little device do what I want and not the other way around.

So Mr.Blackberry, I resign this post as your slave from this day. It was not a pleasure being your slave and I am glad I realized it now. Also, I am switching our roles from today. You will do what I want from today and I will tell you to fetch my emails, get my feeds, send my mails, handle my mails, wake me up, post my blogs, etc and you will do it when told to do so. Welcome to your new role in my life, Mr.Blackberry.

Hello blackberry user, I am no longer a slave of the blackberry. How about you ? 🙂