As a girl who is constantly breaking her phone I know the struggle of going a few hours without a phone. I normally beg and plead till my parents get my phone fixed but this time was different. My parents have had enough of me breaking my phone, they knew however that I would need some sort of communication to the world. So they decided to send me my sister’s old iPhone 5. Considering my parents live in New Jersey and I go to school In Connecticut and I decided to break my phone on a Friday(just my luck right) I could not get the phone right away. My dad of course overnighted it (not happy about it may I add) but he did it. That still left me with 24 hours unaccounted for and with no phone. At first I sat in a room with my friends looked around and for the first time realized how much we are actually all on our phones. I think I have never noticed before because I was right alongside them with my face buried in my phone not even taking a second to look up. I was mind blown that 6 best friends can all sit in a room face in their phones and consider that “hanging out.” Now believe me I am not hating on anyone I am normally right there with you, but this experience was so eye opening for the first time I had nothing to distract me from the real world. All I had was the company of the people around me and I genuinely enjoyed that.
There was no snap chat stories for me to catch up on, or Instagram post for me to stalk, there were no Facebook articles for me to read. And for the first time I was happy about it. Although all my friends still had their phones I experience the whole other side of life. I got to actually look around for once, I got to be fully focused in a conversation without wondering who just texted me. I got to live in the moment and not in the night before (from my snap chat story). When I would tell people that day that my phone was broke and I couldn’t text they would look at me as if I just told them a relative passed away. It was a look of such sadness and honestly thinking back on it, it’s disgusting. Yes our phones are important and yes we need a way to communicate but they do not define us. They do not make us who we are. I am the type of person who will put their phone on the charger and walk away for hours. My friends never understand why I do this and I never really explain it to them. But for me if I am with my friends surrounded by the people I want to be with, then there is no need for my phone. Believe me I am not trying to make it seem like I am so non-humanly creature who can survive without their phone because I am far from that. I am just a girl who experience 24 hours without her phone and has never been more grateful.
