The Phone Addiction: What Happened After My Phone Broke

On the sunny Saturday of April 16, 2016, the worst possible thing could happen to any young adult, but especially me: My iPhone broke. And when I say it broke, I mean that the touch screen stopped working, disabling me from allowing access to my messages, mail, and Twitter. Also, this was not my fault by any means at all. I had left my phone for about an hour at a track meet, and when I returned, the touch screen was useless.

It was definitely the struggle. I actually had no clue at first how to tell my parents the situation, like would I call them on a friend's phone and hope they wouldn’t be mad that I broke my phone or just hope that in would magically fix itself? I chose the latter, and that proved to be a waste of time. I actually had to message my dad through Facebook messenger to basically find a way to get my phone fixed. We both came to the conclusion that if I have to pay a big amount to get my phone fixed, then I should just wait a week and I would get a new phone.

Within in the next couple of days, I decided to travel to the Apple Store and get a second opinion on what the situation entailed. The man was not the best at customer service like at all. He was very rude to me and thought that I broke it, and when he came back to tell me there was nothing he could do there, he offered to fix it for $130. I initially wanted to be like the lady below who yells about Applecare, but instead I kept it modest. So I said, “Gotta blast,” and left a second later.

I actually sat in my bed in the middle of that day thinking how I would be using my phone at that given second. I could see all the messages and notifications I am receiving, but I can do absolutely nothing to respond back. I saw I had a message from my grandma and it made my heart ache because I didn’t want her to think that I was ignoring her. My alarm was also a rough spot, I was almost late to all of my classes the past week because I relied on my phone to wake me up every morning. Then there is also being a part of a group chat and not being able to make cohesive plans with my own initial input.

However, not everything was all negative. Having a broken phone also made me pay attention more in classes and also in day to day talking. Most days, I find a cool playlist on Spotify and play some music and keep my head low, but this week I walked with my head up and saw a lot of people I knew and noticed so much more as well. I got work done faster, just the distraction of a phone being by my side slowed a lot of my progress when working. The time spent doing homework was literally reduced by three hours. Conversations with friends also improved so much as well. I have a bad habit of looking at my phone a lot during a conversation, and often asking, "What did you say?" But I had smooth conversations with friends and noticed that they look at their phones when I talk to them.

Although there were some positives, this week has proven to be one of the roughest weeks of my life. It just made me realize how dependable I am on a five and a half inch device and how it basically dictates my life. I am addicted to smartphones and all their infinite glory. It controls all who I talk to, when I wake up, how I make plans, and what I do when I am bored. My iPhone was one of my most precious possessions. I mean, besides having the main mode of communication through most of my friend groups, it also contains so much history. I mean I have had it for two years. But all the pictures and saved messages from coaches and friends, I really hope those will not be lost. The biggest let down from this whole process is that I almost missed the announcement of Beyoncé’s new visual album being dropped.