I am not the biggest fan of using #firstworldproblems to describe any situation that myself, or any of my friends may face. Obviously, there are problems that exist that are way worse than the ones we might face on a daily basis. But, regardless of that fact, losing your phone absolutely sucks!
Whether it is an iPhone, Android, or even an old school flip phone, losing or breaking our phones can cause many problems with our daily lives.
The most superficial issue is that you can no longer constantly communicate with any of your friends or check social media. This does suck, but I feel like this does not quite encompass the worst parts of losing your phone.
The Thursday before Halloween, I was pumped to show off my costume to all my friends, go out, and have a good start to my Halloween weekend. I look forward to this non-traditional holiday every year. It is a fun event, and this year it happened to last Thursday to Saturday. It started off well, until Thursday turned into Friday. I realized, as I was going home, that I lost my phone. Instantly, emotions crossed my mind and I started to retrace my steps. I know my phone died in the middle of the night, so Find My Phone was a useless option. I just had to wait until the next day to make some phone calls.
The next day, I woke up and remembered I didn’t have my phone. If you live alone, this might be the worst case possible. I had to go to a friend’s house to use their phone. There are no house phones or pay phones, anymore. We live in a cellular age, so the only thing to do is find a cell phone to use. I called the bars from the night before, and, of course, they did not have my phone. I checked its location, again; the phone was still turned off. At this point I realized it was gone forever, and Halloween was over for me.
It was like time traveling. I started using Facebook messaging as a means of communicating with any friends and my parents to let them know what happened. Now, I needed a new phone. This was my second new phone in less than six months. I have really bad luck with my stuff since I have been in college. Also, I refuse to get insurance on my phones because when I do, I never lose them, and I just pay extra. I think, from now on, I will always have insurance.
If you have insurance, you just drive to the phone store and get a new phone after you go through the insurance calls. If you don’t have insurance, your parents refuse to get you a new phone, and you are still in school and can’t afford a new one yourself. Well, that’s my life.
Luckily, I get to borrow a phone until Christmas.
Some of us aren’t so lucky. A lot of my friends have graduated and have been cut off from their parents. When they lose their stuff, they have to pay for all of it themselves. One of my friends, Erica, just broke her brand new iPhone 6. She is currently using her old, cracked phone until her new one arrives. She says, the worst part about losing her phone has been, "realizing how dependent I am on it, and because it has become a device I store a lot of important, sensitive information on, not only personal but also work related. material. The process has been easy replacing it, but it has been costly." Luckily, she had her phone insured.
We are so attached to our phones, now, that if you lose it, you kind of lose yourself. I use my phone for everything: communicating, organizing, music, games, studying, researching, reading, etc. The one positive of losing my phone was that it grounded me. I only talked to and hung out with the people I really wanted to, and it seemed like life was a little less busy and quieter. I would just rather choose when I want that feeling.
Do not get me started on what it feels like to lose your phone, keys, ID, and credit card. It’s a different world.
