Horror of almighty horrors! Last week my mobile phone broke. I worked out it wasn’t working quite quickly but it took the guy in Carphone Warehouse about 40 minutes to declare that yes, indeed it was having issues and would have to be sent away for repair.
I was advised that while it could take up to 28 days it
would probably only be 2-3 weeks. Not a
problem I thought, I’m a grown up and can surely survive a few weeks without my
phone. Besides, I was getting a ‘courtesy’
phone so all would be right in the world.
Then the young lad produced my courtesy phone, or as I have christened
it, ‘the beast’.
Turns out my courtesy phone is well, just that, a
phone. I can call people and if I have a
half hour to spare I can also contemplate sending a text. No games, no internet, and no social media. As I walked out of the shop I had a moment of
realisation. My life was on my
phone. My diary, all my contacts, pictures
of very random stuff, not to mention my Twitter, Facebook, email and random
notes of interest (or at least to me). What the hell was I going to do?
The first couple of days are always the hardest. Quitting the world of modern mobile living
proved surprisingly difficult. So I’m
laying my shame aside and offering a brief insight into my suffering:
Days 1-2 Denial: A
low point. I kept randomly picking ‘the beast’ up to check e-mail, twitter or
some other such thing only to remember that it won’t do any of it. Days 1 & 2 also saw me resorting to randomly
pressing buttons because I couldn’t do anything else. Also kept going to take
photos of things only to realise I had no camera!
Day 3 Anger: “What
am I going to do with this?”, “This fecking thing is going out the window”, “You pile of shite” all common phrases uttered
many times on day 3.
Day 4 Bargaining: This was possibly the lowest point and included
a phonecall to Orange to see how much it would cost to get out of my contract,
browsing the net for temporary replacement phones and some rather shameless
husband flirtation to try and wrangle his phone from him.
Day 5 Depression: “My social life is over”
Day 6-7 Acceptance: You know what? It’s not too bad. Me and ‘the beast’ are rubbing along nicely
together. He’s not a bad sort and in
fact I’d even say I’m beginning to like the little fella. He’s never needed charged and he has yet to
send an inappropriate text to the wrong person. Also, I’m quite enjoying being free from the
social media world. It’s peaceful now.
So there you go. If
you find yourself disconnected from the 21st century it might bring
some sort of consolation to know you’re not alone.
While the beast is proving to be a reliable and trustworthy
companion I am looking forward to getting my old phone back. At least for now I can relax and enjoy my
time removed from the modern world.
One question that the whole saga has brought up though is at what point in my life did I become so reliant on technology? I'll have to remember to Google that when I get my old phone back.
One question that the whole saga has brought up though is at what point in my life did I become so reliant on technology? I'll have to remember to Google that when I get my old phone back.
NB : There may be some traces of sarcasm in this post
