Blackberry Email Blackout: the existential crisis

This morning I did not wake up to the usual buzzing of my Blackberry receiving emails.  Maybe that’s why I was able to sleep in so late.   No, I did not lose all my popularity overnight (that takes longer than one night).   My email client had stopped receiving emails!  My Gmail both through the application on my phone and online was fine, thus my popularity remains intact.

Turns out some users could not access Blackberry email — imagine the horror.

While maybe this fact isn’t very interesting, it is interesting to see how people respond AND how they fill their time.  A quick Google News search found 2,741 articles about the outage.  A Google Blog search found 21,745 posts (make that 21,746).  There were countless Tweets and status updates.

It seems that we are pretty helpless when our technology does not cooperate.  However, given our reliance on technology, we go right back to it as an outlet for our frustration.

The Tweets and status updates aren’t so much about making people aware of the email situation, but to complain.  I guess that makes sense given how ego maniacal Twitter and Facebook are.  The blogs seem to be a bit self indulgent but with a true heart, and the news is just news.

However, 2,741  articles is a lot.  Maybe it was due to the productivity gained from a silent Blackberry. Or maybe there was nothing better to write about.  No more Tiger infidelities?  Or are we living in a world with such huge capacities for media generation and consumption that everything is addressed?