It’s so easy to feel attached to your phone. Personally, I hardly ever go anywhere without it. It’s just convenient and it basically stores my entire life into one small handheld device. I depend on it for everything, reminders, socialization, and even class assignments. It’s proven to make my life simpler. My phone pretty much became an extension of my arm and I didn’t realize how bad it had gotten until the day it, and what felt like my whole world, broke.
I’ll admit I am a little too careless with my phone. You’d think I’d take better care of it considering how much I depend on it on an everyday basis. The day my phone finally broke, shouldn’t come as big of a surprise as it did. It was something I did on a daily basis, too. My phone was cracked to begin with, but it was still working. I slipped my phone into my back pocket and the next time I pull it out to use it, half of the screen is discolored and the entire touchscreen wasn’t working. I panicked. I tried turning it off and back on again in hopes of it fixing itself, but when the screen lit up again with the same discoloration lines, I had lost all hope.
(Image by Asif Ikbal Bhuiya from Pixabay)
I called my parents on my coworker’s phone and told my dad I was going to head to the mall to get it fixed. He told me to wait until the next day, where he would drive up to campus to pick it up so he could take it to the Apple store to get it fixed. Long story short: While my dad had to sort out the phone insurance and what not, I ended up having to be completely without a phone for an entire week. Talk about my worst nightmare. I had my entire life planned out on my phone and I now had to get through a week of my life without it.
The first few days were rough, I’m not going to lie. I found myself reaching for a phone that wasn’t there and it surprised me how many times a random thought or question would just pop into my head that I’d have the urge to look up, but I didn’t have a phone on me to quickly look up the answer. It made me aware of how much I really take readily accessible search engines for granted.
(Photo by Claudia on Unsplash)
It look a lot of major adjusting, but at the end of the week I was functioning normally again. I didn’t need my phone to do all the things it did for me. I could do them on my own too. I found myself wasting less time on social media and spending more time talking to my friends in person and making our connections better. I stood on top of my school work better and even got to do some leisure reading also.
I’ve come to realize that I don’t need to depend on my phone as much as I did before I broke it. I’ve had my new phone for about two weeks since I got it fixed and I don’t find myself picking it up as much as before. I’m carrying the new, healthy habits I gained from what seemed like a life shattering experience and using them to made the most of every moment. I don’t need my phone. It helps me in my day to day life a lot, but I’ve learned not to rely on it and it’s making my life better everyday.