A few days ago, my (apparently not so) waterproof phone decided to get wet and die on me. After panicking a bit, trying some house cures of bags of rice and drying it in the sun, I finally accepted that it was over: RIP Phone. Now, anyone who knows me know that this is occurs quite frequently in my life. That’s why I am now used to the “Phone-withdrawal” but here I’ve broken it down to you:
Phase 1: Denial
Before you’ve tried all the house cures, you are pretty sure that you will still be able to fix your phone and forget that this stupid incident ever happened, you are wrong.
Phase 2: Panic
While thinking about how much money you are going to spend on a new phone and how you now have to stop drinking Starbucks every day to afford this, your mind swirls off in a sense of sadness mixed with anger. It’s Similar to the feeling you get when you say open the fridge and a whole carton of milk falls out or when you back into something with your car (not that I’ve ever done the latter) This phase usually goes on for 24-48 hours.
Phase 3: Rational Thinking
You start making plans on how this actually should be covered by your phone- or insurance company and then start making plans for getting a new phone, researching deals and even feel a small sense of joy as you might be able to justify upgrading your phone now!
Phase 4: Social media withdrawal
These days, you are so used to knowing every little detail that happens in your friends life you start feeling a grave sense of emptiness when you no longer can view what they had for breakfast. You start reaching for your phone when you see that amazing sunset only to remember, you can’t share it and you no longer wake up to the snapchats of what your drunk friends did the night before so you actually have to TALK to them to find out.
Phase 5: Free
After a few days you start accepting that you can’t be reached by people. You realize how much time your friends spend on their phones since they whip them out every time you’re at dinner, in the boat, watching TV or driving. You start remembering life before the smartphone and how much it distracts our minds. I’m not saying that I don’t miss it (especially when I’m lost driving around Orlando and REALLY just want a map) but in another way it’s actually a small sense of freedom and uncertainty. You actually have to ASK people for directions, you force your friends to TALK to you and instead of worrying what filter to use on the sunset you find yourself actually enjoying the view.
