This week, I had the privilege of realizing all the reasons I take my phone for granted every day. Both my phone and my boyfriend's phone died early on our trip, and we both got to experience not having a phone when you need it for the first time in a while.
1. Navigation
Welcome back to the world where Siri no longer yells directions at you until you reach your destination. Not only do most people in my generation not know how to read a map, we don't know where to find one either. Thank goodness road signs are still helpful enough to get you away from the middle of the country and back onto I-5!
2. Patience
We feel patient when we have phones to use to pass the time. Whenever we sit around and wait for something, we pull out our phones to pass the time. This privilege gets taken away when we are without our phones, and along with it goes our "patient attitude."
3. Finding friends/family
A lot of times, we take for granted being able to text someone a simple "hey, where are you?" Both my boyfriend's and my phones weren't working when we arrived at our destination, and we weren't able to contact anyone we thought might be there as well. It seemed like it might be a simple task, but in crowds of more than 200, picking people out is a lot harder than it seems.
4. Memorizing phone numbers
Now that we have everyone in our contact list, there is no need for the "contact book" your parents used to have out on the table when you were a kid. I only have three numbers memorized, and that's only because they are stored in my long term memory from needing to know them 10 years ago!
5. Memory in general
Memory itself is another huge thing we take for granted. Because most of our phones have access to the Internet at the touch of a button, there's no need to memorize numbers and facts. Everything you need to know will always be right there for you. Unless you can't use your phone.
6. Pictures and Videos
Does anyone else have a ton of videos of themselves as little kids that their parents filmed back in the day? People no longer carry around cameras, because their phones are so readily available to record. I was surprised by how many things I missed out on taking pictures of throughout the day. I feel we are a generation who are picture and video orientated, we just don’t realize it until we don’t have access anymore.
7. The Little Things
You never realize what you're missing if you're not paying attention in the first place. We miss so many little things when our eyes are glued to our phones. You miss the landscape when you're driving, the funny joke your friend just told, the way the sun looks when it's not being recorded on Snapchat. There is a lot of bliss that comes with putting the phone down and noticing all the little things we miss.
Sometimes it’s nice to take a step back and realize all the things we take for granted every day. Even reestablishing some old habits may be well worth your time, just in case you don’t always have such easy access to technology.
