First Modern Revolution: BlackBerry vs. Droid

So it comes to this: I am part of the first modern revolution. Technology has changed our fundamental expectations about how things should work. One of those things is access to information. We want information on-demand. More importantly, we want the information we need on demand. Most of don’t even realize our expectations have shifted. (And importantly, most companies don’t either.)

I have been a loyal BlackBerry user for a number of years. Right now I have the BlackBerry Tour. But after last night, I’m switching to a Droid. (I use Verizon, so iPhone isn’t an option here.) This new commitment to change happened because I got lost. At night. In the rain. Like a good social media observer, I was on my way to a Meetup event in a town where I don’t know my way around. Sure, I had the full complement of electronics in my car: Garmin, Blackberry, laptop, and iPad. Garmin didn’t help because I didn’t have the right address and in a moment of over-confidence, I hadn’t printed out the Google map directions as a fail-safe. So I was counting on my line-up of devices to overcome human error. Only one of the devices had Internet access—my BlackBerry. (I’m waiting for the next gen iPad to upgrade to 3G.) So I tried to search on my BlackBerry. It was painfully slow and when it did load, I couldn’t read the tiny screen even with my glasses. A mouse with glasses wouldn’t have been able to read the type on the screen. After the first search, the next link never even loaded, so I could find the event, but I couldn’t get to the address.

Never mind, I tell myself. I can use my BlackBerry as a tethered modem so my MacBook Pro can access the Internet. Not. Connection error, please try again. No luck. I even resorted to using my BlackBerry the old fashioned way, by calling someone who might have Internet access and help me out. No luck. Neither my sister nor my daughter was home. So there I am. It’s dark and raining and I’m driving along trying to find a place that looks likely for a Meetup with addresses similar to what I thought it was since I must have transposed some digits. I’m not even going to calculate the mathematical possibilities of that effort.

I ultimately found the right location (I know you’re relieved to hear that). It took me about 30 minutes and that was totally due to luck, not technology. But I realized that the event had been profoundly frustrating not just because the technology didn’t work, but because I now expect it to work. Connectivity is no longer a luxury or windfall gain. It is a core expectation. And not just for me.

By the way, anyone got any recommendations about which Droid I should try?