Whose got the BBM infection?

Sometime between the last quarter of 2009 and first quarter of 2010 an infective bug was let loose more than before and its effects grew so exponentially. One that when it bites leaves one frenziedly frisking fingers through the keypads of the bug originator (phone). A chronic infection! This infection is the almighty BlackBerry Messenger (BBM). I guess that name is quite familair? The purchasing trend for a Blackberry phone increased not for the smartphone, business-official and email purpose but for the chatting ish - BBM.

What is the BBM? It is quite synonymous to the Yahoo messenger, GTalk, MSN, 2go etc. The plus side of the BBm is that it offers that aesthetics and allows you to do a little customizing of the characters you want to choose. It also gives room for your online friends to know the songs you are listening at a particular moment (This is actually a way to start up or spice up a conversation). The BBM is the only chat app that allows segmentation of friends into groups as well as choosing to belong to groups.

With all these positives the addiction and social nuisance transmitted by the BBM bug is overwhelming. From checking your phone first thing when you rise from bed to being the last thing you always want to set your eyes on before going to bed. The major reason why you will always want to charge your Blackberry phone every hour. Driving and pinging is a different tale! Walking on the road or "watching TV" with eyes glued on the screens of the BBM device. Most annoying social nuisance is seeing people fiddling with their phones in meetings, executive meetings! A colleague of mine got a query for that from her boss for pinging during a meeting with a state governor in the governor's office. An honor she rubbished.

Annoyingly, the BBM can never be turned off as you can't sign out of it. The best you can do is turn your alert to the silent mode. What a bondage to be pitied. RIM why? Worst of all once you change your BB to a higher model you've got to start re-entering and re-adding all your contacts as these cannot be backed up on the PC manager or synonymous to the GTalk, Yahoo messenger, MSN etc. A burden of a job to do.

Interestingly, the sale of the Blackberry can never decline. Reasons being that the device has a very versatile in the sense that it makes you feel belonged among a particular clique - The BB people; all longed for by mature adults and the teeming youths, children inclusive. A perception that attaches the blackberry to an article of ostentation yet bringing an anti social behavior. Really?! A friend once said, "I never liked the Blackberry but my fiance wanted it so bad, I got it for her and right now I beg her for attention because she is so into her BBM than myself." What a confession. My cousin says without her Blackberry (BBM) she feels lonely and depressed.

I'll really like to know what you guys think. If you are a Blackberry phone user please tell us how you deal with and manage this infection or are you immune to it. Also, if you are not a BB user how do you feel not belonging to this group and how's the urge like wanting to join.

People get the comments coming,

http://neduzi..com/2011/10/whose-got-bbm-infection.html

Tell me about it. BBM - the biggest nuisance since Facebook! When I first got Blackberry I had no idea what this app was. Never used it or even knew what it was for. Then I signed up for it and started adding 'friends' and getting added by 'friends'. Big mistake!! I'm convinced that BBM is just like that other mindless waste of time, Facebook! Teeming with people (virtually) screaming: "Look at me", "Look at me!" all day long. And those damn inane status updates, God! "Im off to the dentist", "Im just finishing XYZ Movie", "Im cooking dinner for my husband", Oh please, stick an ice pick into my brain!! As if that weren't bad enough, because its free, people think its there to be used regardless of the fact that have absolutely nothing important or even remotely interesting to say, so they say anything that comes to mind in the hope you will grant them their 5 minutes of attention, every 15 minutes! And if you read a message it shows the sender that you read it, and what if you decide not to respond? Your 'friends' take offense that you had the gall not to devote your full and immediate attention to their message containing their latest news / crisis / activities / requests. I am just thankful I realized just what it means to get sucked into this swirling vortex of non-formation, useless status updates and user names decorated with meaningless emoticons intended to irritate the living hell out of you. It's actually sad that my otherwise decent experience on this platform has been soured by this virus like so-called 'tool' that people use to annoy those they call their 'friends'. A major failure on the part of RIM is not to allow the "sign-in", "sigh-out" protocol used by so many other messengers e.g. Google Talk, Windows Messenger, or the option to remain 'invisible' such as for e.g. Skype, or the option to turn off the "R" notifications that get sent to those who communicate with you, regardless of whether you want that to happen or not. As for me - I will soon be rid of this infection when I move to the bright side and take delivery of my new Apple iPhone. At least I will know if I receive texts that the person sending it has considered it relatively important enough to spend the amount it costs to actually SMS me than someone who felt they could/should message me just because they can do it for free.

@DeweyRiley
While you have a valid point in the way BBM works as per being unable to turn it off, you however descend into juvenile ranting.

Are you implying that the Blackberry cannot send and receive SMS? The new iOS has a new messaging feature called imessage which operates just like BBM and is free so I don't see why you think you will be immune to the so called bug.

@Deweyriley,

that you dont know how to turn off bbm doesnt mean you cant turn it off, thats your own knowledge gap. nobody forced you to buy a bb in the first place and nobody asked you to add friends. as a matter of fact, you have more control over what happens on bbm than you have with the web messengers you mentioned in your rant

if bbm was such a nuisance, the teeming millions who use iphone would not have waited with bated breathe for a year to have the bbm wannabe; iMessage app implemented on the iOS platform.

you should go back to your nokia 3310 since you're better than those who use BB, Iphone and facebook

oh btw, dont bother to try samsung cause the implemented their own bbm wannabe called iChat

bb - bbm - mail = crapberry toy. android or iphone all the way.

Thanks you all for your responses. Please focus on the topic and stop the individual personality bashing.