CCT333+Personal+Inspiration+Narrative

**BBM ** A ugust 2010 I made one of the biggest decisions ever, well at least to me it was. I made ‘THE SWITCH’ … from an iPhone 3GS to the Blackberry Bold 9700. Yes, it may seem silly to others, but this was a significant moment in my life. The moment was significant to me because “THE SWITCH” itself meant so many different things to me, it meant making new friends, building deeper relationships with existing friends, keeping in touch with friends that I barely see and much more. It was also significant because for a while my iPhone was my pride and joy; I valued it as if it were ‘my boyfriend’. Yes, I know it sounds a little creepy, but that’s just how much I loved it. It would go to sleep with me every night underneath my pillow and wake me up in the morning everyday for school and work. It helped me stay in touch with my friends through Facebook, Twitter and SMS. The battery life let me stay up till the wee hours of the morning talking to friends. The applications kept me occupied when I was bored. The mp3 kept me going when working out at the gym. I loved my iPhone and it loved me back. Our relationship was just great. But just as everything else in the world, all good things come to an end. My relationship started to deteriorate, only after I used my iPhone several times to hurt people by throwing it at them, dropping it a bunch of times after having a crazy night of drinking and dropping it in puddles. It even came to the point where I couldn’t take it everywhere with me. I would go clubbing and it was too big to fit into my purse. Things weren’t the same, we both knew it, but we stayed together for a long time until I finally said it was time to breakup.

I needed a change and my friends could see it too. All my friends walked around with their Blackberry’s and told me to get one, saying that it was one of the best phones out there. They kept on ranting and raving about something called BBM? I didn’t really pay too much attention to it and apparently I was the only one that didn’t have it. After many talks with my friends and many times going into the Rogers store to find a phone I found a ‘new boyfriend’, the Blackberry Bold 9700. It was ironic considering I kept telling my friends I never wanted to leave my iPhone for a Blackberry and that I couldn’t fathom the idea. But my friends got me hooked on this ‘BBM thing’. I felt I had to make ‘THE SWITCH’ in order to enter the ‘BBM world’, the world so many of my friends seemed to be a part of. I guess my curiosity got the best of me, which lead me to breaking up with my boyfriend (iPhone) for a new and improved boyfriend (Blackberry), the one with better social connections. It really made me look back on my past relationship with the iPhone; I felt maybe things were meant to be this way. I feel the relationship was based more on the status the iPhone gave me of being cool and having a lot of money because it was so expensive. The relationship revolved more around lust rather than love.

Do I regret “THE SWITCH”? Not at all. Has it changed or improved my social networking with people? Definitely. When I think of it, it seems kind of shallow of me, but who is to say that is true? Especially when millions of people make decisions to create more social connections, from things such as what to wear to the music they listen to. When I made ‘THE SWITCH’ I was only another individual following a trend.

Now back to the story, as soon I left the Rogers store I started to set up my phone, manually entering a bunch of friends numbers into my new phone for about a good hour, setting up a theme, connecting it to the WIFI, downloading the Facebook and Twitter applications, organizing the icons on the screen and so forth. I must have dedicated a half a day to setting up my phone. Ok, maybe not a half a day, but it sure did feel that way. I was putting in a lot of time to make sure this relationship started off right. Then it came time to set up the BBM. I called my friend, I had no idea what I was doing, and they walked me through it. As soon as I knew my PIN I did what anyone my age would do, I put it up on Facebook so everyone could add me so I would have a lot of friends on BBM and feel cool. I’m pretty sure my Facebook status that day was, ‘I made THE SWITCH, hello Blackberry, goodbye iPhone (with my PIN)’ and I had about 20 people ‘like’ it and congratulating me. I also had people leaving me their PIN telling me to add them, most of them were friends but I had a few people leaving their PINS which I hadn’t talked to in ages and then the couple random people I’ve only met once in my life. I’m not going to lie, I felt special with all the comments and 'likes' I got by just telling everyone I switched my phone. I thought if I had random people telling me to add them on BBM, then this must be something amazing. It made me wish I dumped my ex-boyfriend earlier.

Days went by and I slowly learned how to get used to my ‘new boyfriend’ and his BBM. I found it amazing. It sort of reminded me of MSN Messenger but even better. I would send messages to my friends and they would get it right away and I could see when the message was delivered (D) and when they opened it (R). I have to say, at first I thought it was a bit creepy because people could tell when I read their message and than it was a norm to reply right away. And if you didn’t reply to the message right away, you are asking for trouble. There was one instance where I did get in trouble with one of my friends because I didn’t reply after reading the message. She got so upset at me and apparently told someone else who told me. Its funny how information travels. After that I told my ‘real boyfriend’ what had happened and he showed me a way to look at messages without anyone knowing, sneaky eh?

What I loved even more about BBM is the emoticons they had. There are a few that I feel described me the best and I use them all the time. Sometimes I would have conversations with people by using just the emoticons and they would know exactly what I’m saying. Sounds weird, how in society we can communicate by just sending different smiley faces rather than using words.

I believe the main thing that I loved about the BBM is how it contributed to my social life. I spoke to individuals I hadn’t spoke to since high school. And we talked about everything and anything. Topics of what we talked about would usually be around what shows we are watching or replies to their Personal Message on BBM or even conversations about the broadcasts that were sent out. I have a couple of friends that would use BBM as marketplace to sell things, I actually bought a pair of UGG boots through a friend that had a ‘link’ and the transaction started by simple broadcast that was sent out. On BBM my friends and I would also form groups based on courses we are taking or just groups with close friends in it. BBM got me talking to people who I can’t usually talk to everyday using the phone or else my bill would skyrocket. It also had me talking to my friends in different parts of the world, this only happened because it is FREE through BBM.

There are many things that I love about BBM and it is an application that I use all the time. Sometimes I use it at the wrong time though. Its sad to say but I sort of gave the conversations I have over BBM priority over the conversations I have face to face with people. For example, I’ll be out with my ‘real boyfriend’ or family and someone will message me, that sound will go off, the red LED light will flash and I know right away that someone has messaged me. I’m always itching to read the message and reply right away and most of the time I do. When I do its usually when I am in the middle of a conversation with someone that is right in front of me. Rude? Yes, it is or as my parents put it, extremely rude. But everyone I know that has Blackberry does it. It’s sort of become a norm. Does that mean we value the conversations we have over BBM more than the ones we have with people face to face? Personally, I don’t. I just think in society we are sort of expected to answer people right away and instantaneously.

And now as I look back on how my life was before my ‘new boyfriend’ and his BBM, life wasn’t as great in terms of social networking as it is now. I have managed to keep strong relationships with a lot of friends because of the power of BBM. It’s clear to me now that I was alienated from the BBM world when I was with my ‘ex-boyfriend’. I sort of wished I listened to my friends earlier because I feel like I missed out on something when the BBM craze first started because now I have a few friends that started with Blackberry’s branch off and use other types of phones. I guess some people value social connections more than others. I just happen to be one of those individuals that value social connections a lot more. Being able to have constant access to instantaneously message my friends and for them to receive it has a sort of gratifying affect on me. I feel I have been further socially accepted by more people because of ‘THE SWITCH’