Unplanned Hiatus

Last week an unfortunate tragedy occurred to me during my afternoon tennis practice. A water bottle tipped over, spilling through my racket case an onto my unsuspecting phone. Unfortunately I didn't catch in until it was too late, 45 minutes after it had been soaking and seeping into every seem and hole, making its way into the deepest insides of my phone. Of course my first reaction was to try to turn it on, which I later learned wasn't the best idea. A blue screen flashed for a second, its last cry for help before it was gone, lost into the realm of dead phones forever.

While this event left me feeling helpless, I managed to find opportunity in the loss. I decided to make it into a kind of unplanned experiment.

If someone where to have told me 2 weeks ago that I could survive easily without my cell phone for over 4 days, I wouldn't have believed them. I rely on my phone for everything, like most other teenagers, and in ways that day by day go unnoticed. 

When I'm sitting in a class reading and I come across a word I don't know, I never hesitate to pull out my cell phone to look it up. It takes 5 seconds and the satisfaction is immediate.

When I arrive to class early, waiting for the lesson to start, I pull out my phone and browse Twitter, Instagram, keeping up with every one's latest news, interesting or not. Most of what I'm looking at is meaningless in the long run, but it keeps me occupied. I never have a second to be bored because I, in a sense, have the world at my finger tips. I can access all types of information, play any kind of virtual game, be in contact with anyone in the world. It's a powerful thing to think about, but no one stops to appreciate it. We have so much and care so little, and I suppose that applies to many things this day in society. But we wouldn't ever notice because we are too busy reading up on someone elses' life, or sending pointless text messages to people sitting right across the room from us. 

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