Ever since Claire Spencer arrived at AIR 106.1, there’s one topic that she loves to egg me on about. 

For the last year or so I owned a flip phone, more of convenience than anything else. I owned a smartphone (Galaxy S5 if you must know) for quite a while before downgrading to the classic phone.

I wasn’t ashamed of the phone, after al,l I’m pretty sure actor Chris Pine has one and Adele used it in the music video for ‘Hello’. Don’t believe me? Just watch the narrator of Planet Earth explain it to you.

Don’t get me wrong, having the Samsung was good but at the end of the day it distracted me more than anything else. Whether I was at work, home or church, I always felt the need to be connected.

You might as well call it an addiction because that’s what it was. It affected my progress at work and at home because I was more concerned with getting the next “fix” off the Galaxy, whatever that was.

It took some guts, but after a while, I went down to my Fido rep in CrossIron and said I wanted to buy a flip phone, which only cost me $60 outright.

I don’t regret having that phone because it kept me less distracted and it was cool having people ask me about it.

(Side note: They still make these things new, so all the comments about ‘how old is your phone?’ were kind of a waste of breath, but I was happy to answer it.)

The best part about the phone was how much money I was saving as I only paid about 27 a month for my phone and I only really needed it to talk and text.

Sadly though, I made the decision to part with flippy last week because I needed a phone that would help e-mails (after all I am a newsie). I wasn’t interested in a flashy smartphone with all the apps that distracted me before so where did I turn to...Blackberry.

After finding an inexpensive Blackberry Torch online, I got it delivered, unlocked and ready to go.

Yes, I had to put data on it, but it’s not much and it only costs me a little bit more each month, and it’s not distracting me.

So there you have it. My lovely journey from the flip phone to the blackberry!!!!

Derek Craddock – dcraddock@goldenwestradio.com