Before leaving seventh period to get to my internship on time, I received an alert on my Blackberry. My internship mentor had emailed me to remind me of my day off for Veterans’ Day, saving me the unnecessary burden of going through the tight NIH security checks.

Before my Blackberry, I relied on other students to answer my homework questions. Now, I can check Edline and my email anywhere and anytime  both a blessing and a curse. I’m also able to do my homework even when I don’t have computer access, which lightens my workload when I return home around 8 p.m.

In the past, I’d come home from school and frantically check my Facebook account for notifications. Although I’ve now become even more addicted to Facebook, the convenience pays off — rather than an overflow of notifications at once, I can steadily check updates as they come in, ultimately saving time.

Some may see this constant connection as too much of a distraction. Nonetheless, my Blackberry saves me a large amount of valuable time; it allows me to multitask rather than requiring me to drop everything to check the computer.

And to my surprise, my Blackberry hasn’t transformed into a “Crackberry.” I still don’t open PDF files on the device mostly because I can’t, and I haven’t fully converted my texts over to ‘BBMs’. Yet.