My week without a phone

I thought it wouldn’t be too hard. How naïve I was.

The first obstacle came when i reached for my phone to tell everyone I was going off my phone. Yeah,this week wasn’t off to a promising start.

The temptation to reach for my beloved Samsung was too much and so a friend was asked to confiscate it for the week to save me from the urge to text.

Just before the hand-over

During the week I was plagued with the feeling I had forgotten something and any time I saw someone with a phone there was a felt a strange sense of loss.

Woe is me

I never realised just how much I relied on my mobile. It’s used  as an alarm, a means to contact friends, and for important procrastination. To ensure I didn’t miss any classes I relied on friends to wake me up.

This just did not work and after missing both my morning and afternoon classes I decided to invest in an alarm clock.

When I wasn’t at home I had to rely on any clocks I could find- and it turns out they’re not as common as you would think. I found myself losing track of time and having to rush into the nearest building in search of a clock.

One day I arrived forty minutes late for a tutorial,and after hiding my face in shame for the remaining 20 minutes, a short trip to town was taken to buy a watch.

Ice

Arranging nights out and ordering taxis became a lot more complicated. I had to either share a taxi with friends or ask them to phone me one. After a while it became inconvenient and I felt like a nuisance.

One memorable moment came when I tried to organise a night out for a few drinks. A few days before I had suggested to some friends about going to a pub after our classes had ended.

However, I didn’t see any of them for the next few days and obviously couldn’t text,whatsapp or snapchat them about our plans. To my shame I turned up, waited for over an hour and no one showed. I couldn’t even contact them to say where I was. They made fun of me for days.

recreation of the sad times

I missed my phone. I missed being able to text people, I missed Snapchat, I missed taking pictures. Facebook and Twitter, I could access by laptop or computer but it wasn’t the same as having social media at my fingertips.

It was the height of common girl problems. I realised that it was more than a little sad to be so dependent on a piece of technology.

oh baby never leave again

When my phone was returned I was overjoyed and  scrambled to check how many texts I missed.

But during the week without my phone I was a lot more focused. There was no constantly checking Facebook and I paid more attention to real life conversations.

Some friends admitted it was annoying being unable to contact me, but admired I could last the whole week.

I won’t pretend I didn’t miss my phone, but being without it reminded me there is a world beyond the tiny backlit screen.