First thing's first .. I almost titled this "You Used to Call Me on My Cell Phone" because of Hotline Bling by Drake, but then I realized that since the very first time I heard it, I strongly dislike it and should not name this post after that song. WOW, words. So let's get to it, shall we?
A few months ago, I left a bowl to soak after supper and went out to visit with Ian’s family. I didn’t take my phone because I knew I didn’t need it and a few hours without it wouldn't kill me. Little did I know, it would kill my phone. The bowl of water did it’s own science experiment: There was a cloth hanging on the side of the bowl, half in the water and half out and my phone was sitting beside this bowl so when we came home from our visit… it was in a puddle on the counter. Into a bowl of rice it went, and there it stayed for about a day and a half. At first, the phone worked as if it were just an iPod Touch – I could use the apps and listen to music but it seemed the water damaged the part where you can actually use it like a phone and kept giving me some weird message about the SIM card. I went to my phone dealership and the solution was that I had to buy a new SIM card and use my 4S again - a phone that I had already replaced with this 5C because it wasn’t really working that great. Awesome.
Anyway, while I was without any phone at all, I realized that we depend on our Smart Phones way too much. It’s a little bit insane. Like I can’t drive anywhere without having to be twice as cautious because someone isn’t looking where they are walking because they have their eyes glued on their phone and I might hit them (not to mention all of the drivers on their cell phones. That drives me MENTAL. Not only are you putting yourself in danger, you're also putting every single other person out on the road in danger. I have a feeling that pretty soon, texting and driving tickets will outnumber drinking and driving tickets). And of course it would be my fault because they probably would have it documented on Snap Chat, Twitter AND Instagram. Actually, while I’m talking about pedestrians who are glued to their phones.. there was a woman who I saw regularly walking her dog in the mornings this summer on my drive to work. When I saw her, I was usually stopped at a stop sign and she crossed in front of me. 9 times out of 10, she had her eyes stuck to her phone and didn’t even look before crossing. Not all drivers are as nice as me and courteous and stop behind the stop sign, first of all. Second of all, what if I rolled through the stop sign and hit her? THIRD of all, what if I stopped behind the stop sign like I am supposed to but the person behind me doesn’t realize that and rear ends me and sends me flying into her? Take twenty minutes, walk your dog without your phone. It isn’t going to be the end of the world. Let yourself wake up without the bright screen in front of your eyes. Or at least look up and check for cars before you cross the street.
I’ve been making a conscious effort to not be on my phone as much. I’ve deleted a bunch of apps (I’ll be honest, that’s mostly because I don’t have any room on this phone) and am not on my phone after 10:00 PM when I put it on airplane mode – so I can still use it as my alarm to wake up but I can’t be tempted to check my phone. Also the fact that I just said “but I can’t be tempted to check my phone” is a bit of a problem. I keep my phone in my purse when I am visiting with friends or out for dinner – pretty much I put it away whenever I am going to be interacting with other people. They deserve our full attention and we deserve theirs. So many people my age are starting to realize that there is so much they want to do in this world, but we are also not getting any younger. Maybe if we didn’t spend the last 8 years of our lives looking at the world through our cell phone and computer screens, we could have seen the world by now. We obsess over perfect photos of perfect lives that we don’t have but those photos aren’t even real. And if they are real, they are just a fraction of that person’s life. They aren’t going to post pictures of their near empty bank account and never ending Visa bill. They aren’t going to post pictures without perfect makeup and filters when their face is breaking out. I’ll stop this rant before it gets crazier.
I decided to jot down a couple of things when I was without a phone, so here is my list
When your phone goes for a drink
· You have to call your dad from your boyfriend’s phone. Your dad probably thinks (or hopes) it is your boyfriend calling to ask for your hand in marriage. But really it’s just his irresponsible child who broke her phone
· You have email correspondence with people like when you were in seventh grade cause you can’t text
· You realize that when you aren’t texting someone all day, you can have real face-to-face correspondence with them and hear all about their day all at once instead of having a live update of the problems with the photocopy machine after Gerald tried to photocopy his face
· You wonder how many texts you will miss throughout the day but in reality you tell yourself “Don’t kid yourself, you have been emailing your boyfriend and coworker all day plus your dad already knows your phone is out of commission. So you obviously are going to have zero text messages waiting for you when you get your phone working again.” So at this point, you just consider getting rid of it altogether because no one ever texts or calls you anyways.
· You use your computer for Facebook, Twitter.. everything and it feels weird like you’re back in the olden days of flip phones… and you like it.
When I wrote that list out, I thought I would post this not too long after but it’s been a couple of months and I was inspired this weekend to write about it because my already broken (but usable!) iPhone 4S fell straight down from about waist height and cracked. So now, not only have I drowned a phone, I have also smashed one.
I wonder if this is a sign that I should just give up having a smart phone altogether? I wanted to get an iPhone 6S before Ian and I go to Europe next summer (more on that another time) but… I might have to get that a little sooner.
Are you addicted to your Smart Phone? Do you need to go on Dr Phil or Intervention? Let me know and I can help you! Aka I will tell you to interact with humans and that it's more fun to hang out with friends than watch their Snap Chat stories. But honestly, I dare you to give it a try - using your phone less. Or maybe just using it for what it is: a phone. And please don't use it when you drive. Not only is it unsafe, but when you call a community centre to rent a room for a birthday party we a) can't hear you very well because, uh, you're driving and b) you are going to have to pull out your credit card and that's annoying for us to wait for you to do because you're driving. Oh my gosh, I'm at the end of this post and I forgot to complain about the woman who talks on her cell phone constantly while she's at the gym.... or should I say several people. Ahhhhhhhhhh. I'm going to bed before I get crazy.
dream big dreams, be reckless
- L
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