The Blackberry

[Here2serv]

I thought it was a good topic title. The blackberry line does have a reputation of its own. So I just got my first blackberry today, the 8330 curve. It is amazing. The blackberry with my Mac is a match made in heaven. It allows you to be SO organized. So I wonder, does every stage manger have one?  Or is it something that SMs have not caught onto yet? With technology becoming a major player in today's society, it seems that such a phone is needed, for a SM at least. Any thoughts would be welcomed. Just a discussion, not a haters/lovers topic discussion.

[Jessie_K]

I am in fact responding from my blackberry right now. It is fairly new so I have not fully explored the sm advantages but am enjoying many of its aspects. Love having instant email access.

I like the calendar. As well.

[sievep]

I don't consider myself to be resistant to change or technology, but I purposefully have avoided buying a Blackberry.  I know I get very annoyed when I'm in the middle of conversation with someone and the oh so important text or e-mail comes in and I get put on hold, as I'm standing there, so they can respond.  I might be missing out, but I'm ok with not being in touch with everyone 24/7.  Admittedly, my phone does sync with a calendar program on my computer.

[killerdana]

I know I get very annoyed when I'm in the middle of conversation with someone and the oh so important text or e-mail comes in and I get put on hold, as I'm standing there, so they can respond. 

I'm one of those lo-tech people who keeps their personal calendar in a book with a pencil.  I know that's shocking to most people now-a-days.  However, I have a dear friend (a lawyer) who is completely attached to her Blackberry to the point that her sister refers to it as her "pacifier."  We've had to start to ban it from events.

[MatthewShiner]

I iPhone.

[chops]

I just got my second blackberry last week.  And I mean that i have two blackberry's on me at all times now.  They are one of the greatest things in the world as far as communication goes.  Allowing one to instantaneously receive, send and reply to important emails is an essential part of the modern world.  Scheduling, meeting requests, internet and those handy applications such as metric to SAE converters are an essential part of the day.  However, realize that there are some people who email you at 6:30 in the morning.  It may be a time zone difference or they may be an actor.  I spontaneously respond to emails.  If the email is important I will respond to people immediately of course or when it is during regular business hours I will get back to them in a timely fashion.  A non important email may get a response four days later or within the minute depending on how I am feeling.  If you start being a crackberry addict people will expect a response right away and will get upset if you do not respond within 30 seconds.  I mean who has something better to do than type out a quick email.  But in all honesty I have typed out four messages on my blackberry's while typing this message. 

[Britney]

I also have an iPhone.  I know people with Blackberries, but I still like my iPhone better and it works wonderfully with my MacBook. I am a bit addicted to sending people instant e-mail replies, but the longer I have it the less I feel pressured to respond as soon as they send me a message.  They can wait until I'm finished with a conversation.

It is definitely a bonus to be able to at least know how many e-mails you've been sent during the day while you've been away from your computer.

[MarcieA]

I'm a Treo girl myself. I currently have a 650 that I bought used on Ebay (I love ebay!!) and I'm looking to upgrade when I renew my phone contract over the summer.

I love that all of my info is at my fingertips, and as a freelancer who is at the mercy of any number of rehearsal spaces across the city, it's great to have my email when i need it. One of the things that I really like about my Treo is that Palm has an application called Documents To Go which allows you to upload Word, Excel and PDF (with PDF To GO) files to your phone and view and edit them. Contact sheets, on my phone!! It's great.

[Aerial]

I'm also a Treo girl.  I have the 700p.  I love being able to access my email and calendar wherever I go.  I also use the Documents to Go, so I can access files of all types.  I downloaded a great stopwatch that keeps running even when I go do something else on the phone.  And the camera works pretty well for preset photos.

[KMC]

With technology becoming a major player in today's society, it seems that such a phone is needed, for a SM at least.

I would certainly agree that a blackberry/similar device can be a useful tool for an SM.  I would say though, that saying a device like this is needed for an SM is going a bit too far.  I think if an SM gets to a point where they rely on a certain piece of technology and cannot do their job without it then they probably need to re-think their approach to the job.

I think the blackberry/similar device's features of calendar syncing, documents, etc.. can be incredibly valuable for an SM - but as killerdana says previously, a pencil and paper works just as well. The thing I think that repulses me from the blackberry so much is the email aspect of it.  I've been in the corporate arena for almost two years now, and many folks there are attached to their blackberries.  People will make the argument that it's important to have access to email 24/7, which in my experience does more harm than good.  I don't see how anyone can see it as a necessity to have email access 24/7.  If something is truly that important and needs to be addressed immediately, it's probably not a situation that should be handled via email in the first place.  If it truly is that urgent, call the person.

Being "connected" like this 24/7 is a very new concept to society.  People need time to decompress, to be away from their jobs, away from their computers.  If you don't do this you'll burn out.  I found an interesting article entitled "Six Steps to a Stress-free Career" - number five is related to this thread and I've copied it below.

5. Learn to switch off

Being able to forget about work after hours is good for you. So-called “psychological detachment” from the office has been associated with less fatigue, more positive mood and fewer days off work. If that’s true, though, why do so many people keep a BlackBerry or a cellphone in their pocket?

“It’s a modern addiction,” says Edward Hallowell, a physician in Sudbury, Massachusetts. So addictive, in fact, that the BlackBerry has even acquired the nickname “crackberry”. “If you take the substance away, you have an effect.” He recounts a tale of one patient who had classic withdrawal symptoms when she changed jobs and had to give back her corporate BlackBerry. “She kept reaching for it and it wasn’t there,” he says.

Then there was the patient who asked if it was “normal” for her husband to put the BlackBerry on the pillow next to them when they made love.

Much of the problem starts at the top, Hallowell admits, with bosses who use “global competitiveness” as an excuse to keep their employees on the job 24/7. “They’re overlooking the human brain,” he says.

Burnout is no better for the company than it is for the individual. “Just as we learned how to drink responsibly, so we need to learn to use technology.” Compulsive email checkers would do well to keep an egg-timer beside their home computer to call time, he says.

If that doesn’t help, and work worries are keeping you awake at night, make a point of writing them all down before you go to sleep, says sleep specialist Colin Espie of the University of Glasgow. It helps you lay them aside for a few hours. Oh, and turn your BlackBerry off once in a while – just to prove to yourself you can do it.

I do realize this is a much more corporate application than most of this audience will experience, however at the end of the day this is a business about people and human connections.  Any time a piece of technology comes into play that has the potential to compromise that I think we are heading down a dangerous path.

[Scott (formerly Digga)]

I've got the Motorola Q.  Love it.  Have had it for almost 2 years now and it was the best investment I made.  Emails, internet, full contact info, all connected to my PC and easily synced up.

But since it's been almost 2 years, my new every 2 for Verizon is up mid-July and I'm looking at the HTC Touch.  Similar to the iPhone without the Apple crap and better Wireless Internet Service.    I never really considered a Blackberry only because I didn't need the Blackberry service for what I was doing.  The basic Data plan from Verizon has been more than enough.  I'll update once I get my new phone though.

Either way, any kind of smartphone/pda phone is well worth it.  No need to carry 2 separate devices and having the calendar and all of my emails instantly within reach is very helpful.

[MarcieA]

I downloaded a great stopwatch that keeps running even when I go do something else on the phone.  And the camera works pretty well for preset photos.

What's the name of the stopwatch?

[sarahbear42]

I would certainly agree that a blackberry/similar device can be a useful tool for an SM.  I would say though, that saying a device like this is needed for an SM is going a bit too far.

I agree. My husband's got a blackberry for his job, and watching the change between before he had his corporate leash and afterwards, I don't know that I'd want that kind of connectivity. His company purchased it for him, and since he has it he's expected to be on-call 24/7, answering emails at 3AM if they come just because that's when his boss felt like working.

IMO, if something's happening that's that urgent, and I'm not there, and it requires my attention that badly, call my cell phone. During the times of the day when I'm not present for things and it would be appropriate to email, I check my email about 30 times a day anyway... having your email on 24/7 just invites situations that make it so that you can't ever leave work... which makes for mental breakdowns, which is definitely not what an SM needs!

[MarcieA]

I would certainly agree that a blackberry/similar device can be a useful tool for an SM.  I would say though, that saying a device like this is needed for an SM is going a bit too far.

I agree. My husband's got a blackberry for his job, and watching the change between before he had his corporate leash and afterwards, I don't know that I'd want that kind of connectivity. His company purchased it for him, and since he has it he's expected to be on-call 24/7, answering emails at 3AM if they come just because that's when his boss felt like working.

IMO, if something's happening that's that urgent, and I'm not there, and it requires my attention that badly, call my cell phone. During the times of the day when I'm not present for things and it would be appropriate to email, I check my email about 30 times a day anyway... having your email on 24/7 just invites situations that make it so that you can't ever leave work... which makes for mental breakdowns, which is definitely not what an SM needs!

In a lot of ways, what we do, and as a result, what we would use (or do use) our PDAs for is very different than being obligated to wake up and answer an email at 3am from your boss.

I work as a freelance SM in NYC, which means that I am oftentimes in crappy rehearsal spaces that differ from day to day. I don't have an office to run to during a break to shoot a quick email to someone if I need to. For me, having constant access to my email has proven to be a necessity, but not one that has become an obsession. I don't need a 'Blackberry Blackout' or find it hard to put my phone away. It has been amazingly helpful to have it on hand though. I can read and write emails on the bus, or on the train. It is a real time saver in that sense to be connected.

Most importantly though, I can also choose not to answer an email (the same way I choose not to answer a phone call) if I don't feel it's a top priority to stop what I'm doing for it.

Nobody owns me and learning when to say no, no matter how often you're connected is just as important as anything else! Especially for us SMs. Technology related or not, I'm learning as I get older to learn that it isn't the end of the world to say no.

Also, sort of along this same vein, I've noticed that since I've been in NY, many of my actors and designers will now text instead of call to relay information, and I love this! It's so much easier to get a text that says "Trains running slow, I'm 3 blocks away" then have to run out of rehearsal to pick up the phone. Even my directors will text! It's really great.

[Scott]

Also, sort of along this same vein, I've noticed that since I've been in NY, many of my actors and designers will now text instead of call to relay information, and I love this! It's so much easier to get a text that says "Trains running slow, I'm 3 blocks away" then have to run out of rehearsal to pick up the phone. Even my directors will text! It's really great.

I'd prefer to get a text than a call -- but neither are as good as actors and designers making sure they leave for rehearsal with plenty of time for potential lateness.  Tardiness in New York has increased exponentially with the increased easiness of alerting others that one is running late.

(This might also be partially due to the increased migration of actors, desigers, and other artists off the isle of Manhattan into Queens and Brooklyn, both located on Long Island -- but as someone who generally commutes from further east, my sympathy is limited.)

I would never run out of rehearsal to take a call from an actor or talent running late -- unless in the very rare case that it is impossible to do any work in this person's absence. 

I haven't yet been in the situation as a Stage Manager where I would find it particularly useful to the rehearsal process to be to able to retreive emails during the span of day that includes rehearsal hours.  (I rely on email much more extensively when I'm production managing.)   I could see it being very useful in event stage management, particulary corporate meetings.

In general, I see email as an distraction from the immediate needs of the reherasal room while rehearsal is in progress -- and I'd rather use my lunch to either eat and clear my head, or reorganize/clean up, or reset, or shop for rehearsal props or anything thing else that I think might improve the immediate lives of those in the room.