When I got my pale pink Blackberry last summer, I truly thought I was on the cusp of today’s smart-phone technology – keeping up with the Joneses of the 21st century, if you will. After all, it is one of most popular smart phone brands, only behind the Apple iPhone 3GS, the HTC Droid Incredible, and the Motorola Droid, according to Cnet Reviews.

Now, I look at my once-treasured phone, with the pink paint pitifully chipping off and its lack of cool Blackberry “apps,” and I almost want to laugh. I may as well have one of those 5-pound Nokia phones with the lime-green screen that I flauted as a freshman in college, back in the olden days of 2000.

About the only redeeming quality of my phone is the background image, a photo of my sweet kitty, Mikey, who was hit by a car and killed this past weekend. (See my very first post for a heart-melting picture of him!) And while that is kind of a depressing sidenote, I know, my point is that although I find these smartphones intimidating, they allow us to express ourselves, our emotions, and connect with others in a way I only thought was possible through more “personal” means of communication: Friday night dinners with friends or a hand-written letter written in cursive and sprayed with perfume.  I never thought a CELL PHONE would give us so many means of expression and communication! With smartphones, the possibilites seem endless; for instance, not only can you take a picture of just about anything, anywhere, you can also send that photo – immediately – to others. Not only can you view the menu of a new restaurant, you can get directions to that restaurant or even find other nearby dining options. And, as I was amazed to find out last week, you can order a pizza online and customize it right down to the crust. Mmmmmm…pizza.

And while I don’t have many apps myself, I find that the Facebook app seems to be the most popular among my friends. Personally, the dozen or so hours I spend cozied up to my laptop or on one of the campus computers is plenty of time for me to peruse my favorite social-networking sites, including Facebook and Twitter. That’s the same reason I don’t have an e-mail app or Blackberry Messenger (BBM); it’s not just to continue to frustrate my husband, who can’t stand that I don’t have the same 24-hour access to cyberspace that he does. I mean…he and everyone else might actually have to CALL my PHONE to reach me. The horror!

OK, putting aside the smart phone sarcasm for a moment, I said earlier that I think these powerful little gadgets open up vast new options for us, and I hold to that. I think my aversion to some of the apps simply comes from the fear of having to learn something new. I know, I know … apps are easy-peasy to use, so everyone says, but can’t I just wait until I after graduation (May 14!) to fill my brain with more information? I don’t think there’s room now, unless there’s a way I can temporarily store brain power and retrieve it later. Is there an app for that?