Today, college students and most young adults rely on their phone for pretty much everything in life.
I broke my iPhone 6S about two weeks ago, and it felt like life stopped and my world fell apart. Communication with others over social media or keeping in contact with anyone in general has been incredibly stressful without a phone.
According to a recent study, the average young adult will check their phone about 85 times daily, which can accumulate to up to five hours a day. Five hours a day. Most of that time is spent looking aimlessly through our social media apps. So the time that we would normally spend on our phones is spent twiddling our thumbs because we just have no idea what the hell to do with ourselves.
Here are 18 struggles that anyone without a phone goes through:
1. You miss out on all of the news, inside jokes, and big events on social media.
2. You constantly borrow your friends’ phones to make calls so your mom has all of their numbers.
3. You have to bring your computer everywhere with you so you don’t miss important messages or emails.
4. You can’t listen to your music at the gym, so you have no motivation.
5. You’re forced to talk in social situations, or otherwise stare at the wall.
6. Your friends are always on their phones and you’re just sitting there waiting for them to come back to reality.
7. You can't check your bank account app, so you never know if your card will go through. Life's good when it does.
8. You get lost all the time because you don't have a GPS or a sense of direction.
9. You can’t write down spontaneous ideas or to-do lists in your notes.
10. You can’t look at your period tracker so it surprises you.
11. You can’t use Shazam to find music.
12. When you ask for the time and people tell you "Time for you to get a watch."
13. You don’t have an alarm clock, so you have your friends wake you up in the morning.
14. You don’t have a calculator when you need it in class.
15. You can’t take pictures of the beautiful moments in your life, or moments in life when you look beautiful.
16. You lose all of your Snapchat streaks and can’t look at anyone’s story to see where your friends are.
17. You have to play manhunt when you’re looking for your friends because you can’t call or text them, otherwise you’ll be alone.
18. When someone cute asks for your number, but you can’t give it to them because you don’t have a phone.
It’s a little sad when we realize how much control phones really have over our social life. Have you ever noticed a group of people hanging out together and not even speaking to each other because they’re all on their phones? We focus more on a little computer screen than we do on our friends or surroundings. This is due to the stigma that says if we don’t have a phone or access to the internet somehow, our friends and the rest of the world keep moving without us.
Not having a phone for the past two weeks has made me savor and appreciate more of the time that I spend with people. There is certainly more to life than what is on your phone. Not to say that we shouldn’t have phones, because they’re the most reliable tools for communication. But perhaps if we only use our phones for necessary communication instead of when we’re bored, we’ll be able to pay more attention to real life than the virtual world.
So here’s a challenge:
If you ever find yourself looking at your phone for no reason, try putting the phone down and looking for something else to do with the people around you. Go outside, have a physical conversation, hang out with your friends, look at a tree. Or, if you feel that this is too easy, you can take it a step further and spend a whole day without a phone.The less time you look at your phone, the more time you have to be a part of reality.
So if you don't have a phone, don't stress about it. Just use your computer and friends' phones until you get a new one.
