You know when you're on an airplane and you are well aware of the fact that you can't communicate with the outside world for a few hours?
You mentally prepare yourself for those 2 hours that you'll be out of touch. You send your last few texts/emails letting the important people in your life know that you'll get back to them later on when you're back on the ground.
I'm sure we all can admit those 2 hours feel almost uncomfortable. I know, for me, it's a habit to check my phone extremely often. I feel detached from the outside world. It's almost blissful but it's also slightly stressful.
Well, last weekend a similar situation happened to me. I accidentally put my most prized possession in the washing machine: my iPhone.
It was devastating when I told my friend to call it and I heard it ringing from the washing machine.
Through a long series of events, I didn't have a phone for 4 days and it just so happens that my apartment complex's WiFi was down during those days. Long story short, it was the hardest 4 days of my life.
Not to be dramatic or anything.
I think that our generation is actually so dependent on the internet and technology and specifically our cellphones. Now, this is nothing new. We know we are addicted to our phones, our parents have been telling us that since high school.
But I think its more than an "obsession" or an "addiction."
I think we wouldn't be able to function properly in this society without a phone.
For starters, I use my phone as an alarm. So, that was an issue.
I take the bus to school and I use the app Rider. I had no way of knowing when it was coming, or even IF it was coming because I didn't have the app.
The next issue I encountered was, I don't take my wallet to school because the only thing I purchase at school is Starbucks to get my daily iced coffee. Well, not today! I use the Starbucks app to pay and I got up to the counter and I realized just how sad my life was.
The whole day I felt so out of touch. I couldn't connect with my boss through my ONLINE internship. I couldn't check my emails. I couldn't text my friends or call my mom. I felt lost.
Is that sad? I don't know. Maybe
I used to think that I was obsessed with my phone, and maybe I am. But I think it's more that my phone contains my life. It contains the contents of the way that I live and the things that I need to excel.
So the next time you're accused of being addicted to your phone, tell them to try and go 24 hours without one and report back with how they functioned because odds are… they wouldn't even try.
I know I didn't.
My junior year of college, fall semester, my teacher gave us an assignment called "Cold Turkey." I was supposed to use no technology, including my phone, for 24 hours. I thought "oh that's easy, I'm a good writer, I'll make it up and pretend I did it." Which I did. And now Karma came for me.
So, the moral of this story is, that our generation is very dependent on our phones and the feeling is scary, but it's inevitable. And also to always do your homework and not fake it because karma will get you and you'll end up washing your phone.