Blackberry One: The World has Changed and We Must Change With it

We're obsessed. Not just with our own Blackberries -- we're also obsessed with Blackberry One, the President's Blackberry. We seem to care more about whether or not President Obama keeps his Blackberry than whether or not he quits smoking.

The Blackberry is a communication prosthetic and our new President, throughout his campaign and continuing now, has shown himself to be a Great Communicator. The Blackberry is a symbol of technological sophistication. It says, "I use the latest tools available for anytime, anywhere, any place access to information." President Obama's campaign effectively used a wide range of technologies to reach the American people, to keep its volunteers connected and up to date, and to create a sense of community and a spirit of activism.

When I see Obama using his Blackberry, the message I get is, "I'm on the job. Right now. And I'm using today's tools."

Are we concerned about security issues? Is it the legal issues -- the Freedom of Information Act and the Presidential Records Act? These issues can be addressed through technology advances and protocols.

So what are we worried about? For some of us, using a Blackberry helps us stay on top of things at the expense of getting to the bottom of things. It becomes a distraction and an addiction -- instead of taking a moment to reflect, we hit the Blackberry for an email or SMS fix.

Peter, a retired Fortune 500 CEO, told me, "I gave up my Blackberry when I became CEO. I needed to trust my assistant to screen and forward things to me. I was afraid that if I didn't do that, I wouldn't have time to reflect, to consider and plan for the future of the company. There would have been a much greater risk of getting consumed by the day to day."

I've written about continuous partial attention and email apnea. I've studied what happens to our brains and bodies "on technology." I've also witnessed our cool, calm, and collected, thoughtful, basketball-playing, family guy, looks us in the eye, forty-fourth President. He loves his Blackberry and he appears to use it in a disciplined and thoughtful way. He breathes. He gets to the bottom of things. He reflects. I have a hunch he even puts it away when he sits down to dinner with his family.

We have a twenty-first century President using twenty-first century technology. Could we all learn something from the way Obama uses his Blackberry?

Eileen Gunn, an author and blogger, when asked whether Obama should keep his Blackberry, answered with a smile, "Let's see how it goes."

What do you think?

Comments

[Mavin1620]

He should keep it and use it. He should also get a Twitter account, hookup with Facebook and MySpace and keep us informed.

[holli]

"disciplined and thoughtful" --absolutely!
Let's focus on personal responsibility with technology too.
Breathing, choosing, manners, carefulness...
We shouldn't strive to be technology­-literate, we should strive to be technology-elegant!
Like 44.

[Linda Stone - Huffpost Blogger]

Daly, I agree with you that there is so much more that can be done to leverage technology for more effective government. Obama is taking first steps. Are you involved in any way in helping suggest/shape how the government can continue to evolve wrt effective use of technology? Sounds like you have some great ideas.

[ellenl]

I think the presidential blackberry will help ameliorate one of the big pitfalls of all chief executives: being out of touch with the real world, the little guy, etc.. It sounds like Obama will use his blackberry to talk to his old Chicago pals, who will tell it like it is, I hope Obama can avoid the yes-man echo chamber that is part of having round-the-clock Secret Service protection.

[Daly]

We have a gov that plays at using email - I've venture to say that most of the senate and congress do not have a clue as to how to generate an email or read huff. The do not seek knowledge which was proven in the lead up to the war. Yes there is email but underlings are doing it.

IMHO it is a shame when each senate/congress person has to return to DC to cast emergency votes just as they did in the horse & buggy era. I am not saying that they all should use blackberries but they should all have the experience.

When we have people running for POTUS that still want to have innocuous messages hand delivered or using public email addresses there is a disconnect. In this one area of using the new technology the O camp blew away the competition and they have yet to even get a clue as to how powerful the net base is - their answer was to try and kill youtube and to that I say; HA.

[LSStone]

Turns out that smoking, because a deep inhale and full exhale are typical, can down regulate the sympathetic nervous system and stimulate parasympathetic response. It's NOT just the nicotine. The BREATHING aspect of smoking offers a lot toward relaxation.

[amandastories]

OMIGOSH, he smokes???? I hope he doesn't inhale.

[EileenGunn]

I think the real benefit to the president of his Blackberry would be the access to information that the Web can give any of us -- making it a sort of extra brain that remembers everything you don't. In that respect it's faster and more accurate and more personal than an assistant.To make this use of it, you have to be comfortable with the Web and know where to look, how to ask for information, and how to filter out noise, but I'd guess that President Obama is as good at that as anyone, except maybe Cory Doctorow. He seems like a person who sorts his own information.

This -- the president interrogating the Internet -- is the opposite of allowing everyone who has an Internet connection to contact the president, and would yield a better signal-to-noise ratio.

And if it doesn't work for him to have the Blackberry? Well, he's a smart guy, and I think he'll figure that out pretty fast for himself.

[DanG2]

Linda,

You make a great point about there being a tradeoff between staying on top of things vs getting to the bottom of things. I actually thought the blackberry would help with the second too: The president is in a bubble and needs outside opinions. The people who have his address should be the "loyal opposition" not his closest advisors. They already have his ear.

Unfortunately, there was an NYT article today that made it clear that only a small set of people in the very inner circle have his email address. That's the exact opposite of what would be useful. The potential advantage is hearing ideas from outside that circle. It should still be a small set (his time is a bit limited....), but it should be a different small set.

In any case, you're right that we'll hopefully have an example of responsible, balanced use of our technologies. After all, they're here to stay and so society will adapt be converging on social norms around their use.

The other unanswered question: Can he easily surf the web and would that help? Would reading a biography of FDR be more of less useful for him than reading today's HuffPo?

[And, does he use "Hail to the Chief" as his ringtone?]