Broken Phone

I have always been that person who scoffs at people who seem to live their lives entirely through their phones. I openly mock people who queue up to buy latest versions of a damn phone. I roll my eyes at people who constantly check their phones every second for some life-changing alert in social situations. I express frustration about people who can’t seem to do anything other than clicking and posting pictures on social media rather than spending real quality time with people or family around. My pictures rarely ever attend to more than 25 “likes” due to my patchy presence on Facebook and my preference over quality than quantity.

However, my phone gave up on me recently due to some accident. There was a very slender fracture in the screen, but that’s all it took to render the whole thing unusable. I stood there staring at it for a good 30 seconds trying to process what just happened. The smashed screen ghosted on me and matured into a rainbow just when my heart shredded into bits and pieces. Maybe if I try turning it off and back on it’ll help. OK, the screen’s super cracked but it’s not that bad, right? There’s no way it’s completely broken. Maybe if I plug it into the charger it’ll work. There are probably a ton of YouTube vids on fixing a broken phone. It’s probably super easy.

Joke’s on me, the touchscreen refused to respond to any of my commands, instead of following orders seemingly typed in by invisible ghost wizards who were determined to honky ponky as much as they could. It’s official. It’s broken. The warranty is expired, in case you are wondering.

My mind was at its job to calculate the expense going to be incurred and my teary eyes pitied thinking of the repair cost.

Had this been a computer, I might have been able to fix it myself. But a phone? No chance in hell. The sense of loss, tragedy and unbearable pain inevitably came through. I don’t have the money to buy another expensive one. The point is this is not precisely a problem I can whimper about. “Boohoo, I don’t hold the entire world’s information at my fingertips temporarily” is such a ridiculous, First World problem to have, even though I am the species from the third world.

Even then, in the attempt to record the reflexive, grief-stricken screams of my information-hungry brain at the time, I cringe and flinch because I understand what a risk I run for being seen as a “whiny” on par with Social activists. The saga of a wrecked gadget is not exactly Hamlet, tragedy-wise.

So, I womanned the hell up and adapted back to my dumbass lifestyle. Mind over matter, you see?

I already read, write and watch plenty anime and movies in regular life, with or without the phone so my life hasn’t been affected much. I own a simple phone now that performs well barring Whatsapp, Facebook, Snapchat and what not. And, oh my God, what a relief!! I can’t express in words how much I despise texting anyway. I got no time for that. People expect you to be at their service the second they text you. Feels good to be on my own, minding my own business and making calls when needed.

My time without a pocket-sized computer-radio-phone-back massager-whatever is a wonderfully refreshing experience, in the way a great vacation is refreshing: after you manage to relax, you have an awesome time. The thing is life without constant Internet access is like life without running water – simpler in many ways, but, ultimately, a lot mellower. I can do without a phone, but Internet? Nope.

I would certainly get it fixed, though; look at the insufferable arse I turned into without it for a brief moment.

P.S never ever forget why it’s important to keep your screen protector and case on at all times. Never forget.