Imagine, for a second, complete and utter chaos. I'm talking frenzies of people running amok, ripping their clothes off and throwing garbage at one another. All forms of law, as you know them, are tossed out the window. Sounds kind of far-fetched, right?

Fat chance.

This was the scene this past Tuesday at dozens of airports, home offices, and Holiday Inns around the country after technical problems led to a blackout in service for BlackBerry users.

According to an article published in The New York Times, at around 8 p.m. ET last Tuesday, wireless service for more than 5 million Blackberry users was shut down for approximately ten hours. The cause of the shutdown is unknown, although my roommate speculated "Some maintenance guy was probably trying to back peddle to the Hamster Dance Web site and accidentally shut down the server." Whatever the case, this blackout meant that, for ten painstaking hours, people couldn't check their e-mail every five seconds.

In other words, they had to actually pay attention to real life. Either that or get on a computer and check their e-mail there, but that was probably too complicated and time consuming. I mean, who uses a computer anymore? That's so yesterday.

"I quit smoking 28 years ago, and that was easier than being without my BlackBerry," noted one devastated woman. That's really comforting. Not only has technology enveloped our everyday lives, but it's also more addicting than cigarettes.

Does this mean that in the near future we will see a Nicotech patch to help fight the tech cravings? Or maybe a new Truth ad campaign with computers opening up their hard drives to reveal deceased rats and the phrase "Using your computer is like eating a dead rat" plastered across the screen?

The invention of the BlackBerry has forever changed the meaning of the phrase "never mix work with pleasure," because now you can do both at the same time! No longer will you have to be stuck in front of your home computer to see the latest quarterly financial reports. Now you can do it while you're driving the kids to school, playing a game of golf, or trying to rekindle that lost intimacy with your spouse.

The article also quoted several victims, who tragically retold their stories of anguish as they were forced to talk to people face-to-face. Others reverted to using this blackout as a time to relax and enjoy the silence. I hope that they were thinking about why this was the only time they've been relaxed in the past three years.

I don't know what's worse about the situation: the fact that we as a society are becoming increasingly obsessed with surrounding ourselves with technology, or that it's slowly deteriorating our communication skills. Our dependence on e-mail and cell phones has led to a constant need to check on people, even if we have nothing really important to say. We've also begun to spend so much time typing jargon and acronyms that we have forgotten what it's like to talk in complete and coherent sentences.

Don't believe me? Then think about how often you hear people say "TTYL" and "JK."

It's sad to think that, as I write this article in the wee hours of the morning, people are checking their BlackBerries. It's 1:16 in the morning, and I know that someone right now is in his or her hotel room, pressing the refresh button over, and over and over again. Maybe a longer blackout is exactly what we need to get back to one-on-one human interaction. It's either that or a videoconferencing option on the Blackberry. I bet the latter will come first.

Reach reporter Eric Uthus at opinion@thedaily.washington.edu.