The end of the affair

My Blackberry and I underwent a trial separation last week. It wasn’t him, it was me. (It really was me, I left him at my parents)

After the initial panic has subsided I decided to use it a bit of a personal social experiment. I had been thinking for a while how ridiculously reliant I had become on it - My blackberry, my crutch, my technological cigarette. And with no blackberryette patch as yet on the market, there was no other route available - I just needed to go cold turkey.

And you know what? In a way not dissimilar to when I gave up proper smoking another lifetime ago, it felt really quite liberating. The freedom to not be endlessly texting, tweeting, emailing, inexplicability checking the facebook status of some girl I worked with a million years ago who now lives in Belgium who I never really liked in the first place.

During our 4 days apart, I went to meet a friend in Brixton on the train. All I did the whole way up was read…an actual book made of paper and everything. I was alone with my book and my thoughts, not connected to anyone at any time. It felt quite naughty like I’d run away. I was totally opt-out. No-one could contact me I had all the power.

There was one annoying moment where I needed to call my Brixton playdate and let her know I was early and had the indignity of actually having to using a public phone box (surely the exclusive preserve of the drug dealer these days?), but apart from that it was brilliant.

We are back together again. We are happy but frankly it’s not the same. He’s stopped sleeping in my room and we are seriously thinking about discussing whether we will go on holiday together this year or if he’ll be home alone. It’s not all over for blackberry and me, but I have certainly redefined the terms of our relationship, he needed to know who was boss after all.