I got my Blackberry PDA/phone almost a year and a half ago. I can no longer remember whether I knew before I walked into the store that I wanted one, or whether I was simply in the store to get a new phone for either me or my husband. But either way, I walked out with a Blackberry and my husband got my old phone.

My husband has no interest in having a Blackberry. He doesn’t need to be as connected to his email and the Internet as I do. I am self-employed and home-based, so I like staying connected to clients via email. But it’s not that simple. I don’t think my clients necessarily expect to have 24-hour access to me. It is that I like to have 24-hour access to THEM.

I get scolded by friends a lot in social situations for whipping out my Blackberry and checking email, or worse: instant messaging. It’s like a compulsion, a nervous habit. Something to do with my hands. However, it makes me feel, at times, like my life occurs 90% inside my computer (or my little hand-held soul). It’s a tough balancing act. I could leave my Blackberry at home, but then I wouldn’t have a cell phone. I have three children and a husband, so not having a phone with me in this digital age is a major inconvenience, not to mention a major impracticality. The only times I don’t have it nearby are when I am sleeping, showering, or running.

In recent weeks, my beloved Blackberry has been showing signs of weariness, signs of illness, overuse, old age. People tell me they cannot hear me when I am on the phone with them. I have to pop out the battery more and more when the phone freezes up as I am trying to end a call. The new battery is refusing to hold a charge for as long as it should after a day of relative inactivity. Yesterday, I spent two hours online with a technical support representative downloading new sofware, when I know that I am probably going to have to replace my phone. This has led me to do some soul-searching and to ask myself: Do I really need a Blackberry? Does anybody really need to be so connected? Who would it hurt if I didn’t have one? Do I really need to check email during long car trips or in airports? Does anybody besides me really care?

I think having my Blackberry makes me less engaged my in my life. I have been known to check email during movies, at dinners with friends, during baseball games (both professional and little league), while my husband was having hernia surgery, while I am at the pool with my kids, at karaoke, everywhere. It’s rude, it’s compulsive, and I am starting to think that it is more intrusive than it is necessary. One of the ways I know that this is an addiction is that then I start to justify it, tell myself that it’s not hurting anyone. I tell lie to myself that it’s quiet and inobtrusive. And I start to feel a little panicky to think of not having it. I take my purse to the bathroom so I can check it. I am worse than a teenage girl sneaking cigarettes in the bathroom. What would I do every other second without it?

Have you quit your Blackberry? Was it okay? Will I be okay if I quit mine? What is your addiction? What piece of technology or adjunctive to our business can you not live without? And what would you do?