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Blog: An Addiction, And How It Involves You

The first step is admitting an addiction. So here goes: I, like our new president, have a Blackberry addiction.

For those that don’t know, a Blackberry is a “smartphone” — a cellular phone that in may ways is like having a portable computer. From browsing the web, to reading email, to taking photos and videos, to the latest games — I mean productivity software — to watching movies and listening to music…there is very little that can’t be done on a Blackberry.

When I walk out of my office, I always have three things…pants, a camera and the Blackberry. I don’t leave home without it. I use it frequently to update  NorthEscambia.com, approve the comments you see on the site and even post stories “live” from the scene of an event.

When a man became trapped inside a grain silo in Walnut Hill Monday, the Blackberry proved its usefulness. NorthEscambia.com was literally first on the scene, arriving before the first emergency vehicles. Minutes later, we were able to post the breaking news about the entrapment on NorthEscambia.com.

For three hours, we posted live updates from the scene using the Blackberry. Our story was continually updated every few minutes with the latest information as we stood inside the grain elevator, just feet from the rescuers working to free the man from the silo. For three hours, several thousand people were able to follow the rescue live on our site, all thanks to the technology offered by the smartphone.

In fact, looking at our fancy statistics program running behind the scenes on NorthEscambia.com, our story live from inside the grain silo was read nearly 50,000 times. People returned over and over during the three hours to read about the event as it unfolded.

We have used the Blackberry before to post brief “more information will be posted soon” stories from the scene of wrecks, fires and the like. Monday was the first time we had used the phone to post ongoing live updates on a story. We appreciate you turning to us for breaking news, and we appreciate you returning over and over for the latest live news.

If you check NorthEscambia.com only once per day, you might want to drop in a few more times per day. We are making more of an effort to post events as they happen during the day in North Escambia.

We are looking at more ways to improve our news coverage on  NorthEscambia.com. We have a few more things in the works in the coming weeks that I believe our readers will enjoy.

But back to my addiction. Sometimes you just don’t realize how much you are addicted to something until it is gone. Saturday afternoon, I pulled on the Blackberry on the side on Highway 29 in Molino at an accident. The plan was to post a story on NorthEscambia.com to let you, our readers, know that Highway 29 was closed. The button was pushed for the Internet. Nothing happened. Button pushed again. And again. Still nothing.

The Blackberry date network on our cellular company was down in Florida, Alabama, Georgia and the Carolinas. No internet. No email. Nothing. I felt so disconnected, so lost.

You many have seen the coverage in the national news…President Obama fought the Secret Service to be able to keep his Blackberry. He was first told no, but eventually won the battle to stay connected.

I can understand and feel his pain. Being disconnected is very much like going into withdrawal. It’s just not for me.

I also understand why a Blackberry is sometimes called a “Crackberry”. It’s just that addicting.

I also understand the president when on one of the morning shows he said he also wanted his Blackberry to keep in touch with his children. Those emails and photos from the kids when you are out working somewhere are just priceless. When you are sitting in a meeting and you get a photo from the kids, or a “Hey daddy, I love you” it makes that hefty monthly cellular bill worthwhile.

It also makes the Blackberry part of the family. Perhaps it is not an addiction, but part of the family. Yeah, that’s it.