I love my Blackberry. When I say I love my Blackberry, I mean that it's always in my pocket. I'm constantly getting email, replying to email. I have been known to (though I don't really enjoy) blogging from my Blackberry. It lets me play Sudoku, check the weather, IM with my friends. Its greatness is nearly limitless.

And I've stopped using it.

Why? When you've got something that will do, let's say, 200 things, do you only want to allow it to do 50? No, you want it to keep doing all 200. Apply this to the cost of a data package. With the unlimited data package, you can do whatever you want, whenever you want, without counting kilobytes or any of that nonsense. Freedom like this costs a pretty penny, though, and by dropping the data plan, I'm saving myself $600 / year. That's kind of hard to pass up, you know?

So I've changed my tune, and I've gone back to a simple phone. The back to basics version let's me place and receive calls, send text messages, and make lists. That's about all I want it to do. Those are the necessities for me.

In the twenty four hours I've been without my Blackberry, I've noticed that life is quieter. I don't feel "on call." The email will wait until a convenient time.

So what have I learned? Being connected, while exceptionally cool, is really not all it's cracked up to be.