Okay, so I did go without a phone for two-and-a-half days this week, but not intentionally. Here’s what happened:
So after class on Monday, my phone started freaking out. It was just sitting on the table when I saw it go to the restart screen. After it got to the start screen, it went straight back to the beginning where it was just black. It kept looping like this until I lost my mind.
I tried everything I could with the help of Google but nothing worked. I took it to Verizon to see if they could fix it at around 8 p.m.
My phone was just looping the start screen from 3:30 in the afternoon to 8 at night. I barely survived that.
There was no luck at Verizon. Since the phone was not physically damaged, they said they would send me a new one in 3-5 days. In that moment, I knew my life was over.
Here are some of the things I experienced.
1. Panic
I was panicking because I don’t usually go more than 15 minutes without looking at my phone unless I’m in class. I usually have multiple notifications come up within every 15 minutes. There are specific people that usually snap me throughout the day or I might get tagged on something on Facebook or Instagram. Who knows, someone may have retweeted me on Twitter! I wouldn’t find out for almost three days! I’m also the social media person for an organization on campus so I wasn’t able to manage their accounts. There were just too many things to worry about.
2. Extreme Panic
I had some snap streaks happening on Snapchat and I was in full panic mode when I realized I would be the reason the streaks would end. My roommate who won Roommate of the Year let me borrow Snapchat on her phone whenever we saw each other. I kept all my streaks!
3. I had to go on Facebook for everything.
It was the only way to reach me. How old fashioned!
4. Boredom
I found myself looking around a lot. Observing my surroundings, which is a good thing.
5. I had to interact with people.
Whenever I was hanging out with friends, I had to talk to them instead of being in another world on my phone. Even when everybody else was on their phone, I had to say random things to make small talk so I wouldn’t be bored.
6. I had to ask people for the time.
Without my phone, I wandered aimlessly around campus, not knowing the time. I just had to hope that I made it to class on time. My roommate let me use her alarm clock in the mornings. Did I mention she’s the real MVP?
7. I focused on homework.
I had no reason to check my phone every five minutes so I focused on my homework and actually finished it (probably about four hours quicker than I normally would, too).
Ditching your phone every now and then is actually very beneficial. You may not feel connected to the world but you really are. You connect more with the people who are around you, which are the most important ones of the moment and you see so much more of what happens around you. It’s a great time to reflect and better yourself, especially with Lent happening right now. It is extremely difficult, but if you can do it, do it! Challenge yourself!
I had to give up having a phone unintentionally and everyone who knows me knows that this would be a difficult time for me. Even while writing this article, I stopped after writing each line to check my phone. That’s how much of a problem this is.
