Blackberry In Varsities:Case Study

It is no news that any technological device that
finds its way into Nigeria is usually accepted to
the extreme. The advent of Global Service of
Mobile communication (GSM) attracted users in no
small number, to the extent that it was regarded
as “General Street Madness” in some parts of the country. Also, social network like Facebook, Twitter, 2go
etc came along; trust Nigerians, they joined the
trend as if Nigeria invented those social websites. But the problem is that Nigerian users lack
appropriate decorum for utilising any technology
that comes into the country. Talking of the latest
craze in town - Blackberry – youths and adults
have joined the mad rush to acquire the device. Blackberry is a device that has inbuilt social
network applications that link people from
different geographical areas in a jiffy. You can
use it to access the Internet at any point in time.
These services are not free. Users subscribe for
Blackberry Internet Service (BIS) to make use of the device. Its functions as a personal digital assistant
(PDA)and portable media player. It is primarily
known for its ability to send and receive instant
messages via Wi-Fi connectivity. It is the latest
swag in town now, especially among girls in
universities. Everybody wants to own a BB phone. In
universities and other institutions, if a girl doesn’t
belong to the “Blackberry clique,” she is no way
a big babe. In the classroom, market, hospital etc,
you either ping or get pinged. It has got to the
extent that many girls become desperate and are ready to go to any length to attain to the
Blackberry clique. To such people, using a
Blackberry is a do-or-die affair, to the extent that
friends abandon friends who don’t have
Blackberry! Because of the desperate rush, the phone has
become pure water because many people now
own . A day can’t goby without you hearing
someone asking for your Blackberry pin. Even in
classrooms, the attention of Blackberry users is
the usually diverted from lectures because of BB chats. Last Monday, I was in the class receiving a lecture
when suddenly we heard a sarcastic laughter
from the back. It was two friends sitting beside
each other pinging themselves about the faded
attire worn by their lecturer. The laughter caught
the attention of the class and it almost got them in trouble. The same thing happened in my hostel two
weeks ago as two friends argued over the
device. In a nutshell, the coming of this device has
exposed the other side of Nigerians and perhaps,
humanity. It now looks as if GSM has just came to
Nigeria. The cost of BIS subscription would not even
deter the youths from using the device that is
gradually derailing them from achieving their
dreams. Instead of wasting time and money on
mundane activities such as BB chats and pinging,
why not focus on research and invention of new things that will be useful in our nation? Our youths are always on the lookout for exotic
things; only God knows the next invention that
would manipulate the cognitive behaviour of the
Nigerian youths and derail them from attaining
their educational aspirations.