Come Tuesday, the cellphone turned status symbol will become one more relic of a bygone era.
The classic BlackBerry is being forced to retire. A pioneer of on-the-go email and paragon of corporate connectedness, it reigned supreme in the days when physical keyboards had yet to yield to touch screens. But come Tuesday, the cellphone turned status symbol will become one more relic of a bygone era as the transition to 5G wireless technology grinds forward. After its « end of life date, » as BlackBerry calls it, devices running on BlackBerry’s legacy operating systems and software « will no longer reliably function, » the company – which has since pivoted to enterprise software and cybersecurity – reminded users in a news release in late December. Old devices won’t be able to send a text message or dial 911, placing them firmly in the realm of the arcane, in the company of floppy disks and rotary phones. You might still be able to play Brick Breaker though. BlackBerry was among the first devices to introduce the tension that came with eroding the boundaries between home and the office. The devices were beloved and derided for how hard they were to put down, earning them the moniker of « Crackberries. » The wars waged over BlackBerry use – in the movie theater, at the dinner table, during ballet recitals and T-ball games, while crossing the street – foreshadowed the endless tug-of-war for attention and presence that many face in the age of ubiquitous smartphones, social media and Slack. Now, the device’s demise is coming at a moment when the professional world is reckoning with the cost of being eternally reachable by your employer. More than a year and a half into the coronavirus pandemic, Zoom fatigue is rampant, and workers are leaving jobs in record numbers and reevaluating their relationships with work itself, citing burnout as one of the top reasons for quitting.
