The BlackBerry As Cartoon Thought Bubble

At business meetings, I use my BlackBerry to take notes from time to time. This frequently elicits disapproving looks, and after reading this article in today's New York Times, I think I can begin to understand why.

"'You’ll have half the participants BlackBerrying each other as a submeeting, with a running commentary on the primary meeting,' Mr. Reines said. 'BlackBerrys have become like cartoon thought bubbles.'

"Some professionals admitted that they occasionally sent mocking commentary about the proceedings, but most insisted that they used smartphones for legitimate reasons: responding to deadline requests, plumbing the Web for data to illuminate an issue under discussion or simply taking notes."

I'm probably not going to stop taking notes on my BlackBerry in business meetings, because it is more efficient for me to do so, and I think it's only a matter of time before it is no longer seen as a distraction.