Lessons Learned from State of iPhonelessness

My phone has been 'drying out' in a bag of rice and without a mobile device to hold in my hands, I've had a lot of extra time on them instead.

So, I've been pondering life without my phone. And here's what I've learned so far.  

1. It is hard to function in today's society without a phone. 

I had to cancel plans with someone this afternoon, and let me tell you what a palaver it was to get a hold of the person without the use of my phone. For starters, I didn't have her number, because it was stored in my phone. (Who memorizes phone numbers nowadays?!) 
 
2. I am waaaaayyyy too dependent on my iPhone. 

Years ago, the Sailor bought me a Nokia smartphone -- back when that term first popped up. He promptly dubbed the Nokia 'second husband' because I spent so much time with the phone. It wasn't that I was TALKING on the phone so much per say as I was texting, surfing, and playing games (solitaire proved to be my drug of choice on many occasions). 

It really was the beginning of the end. 

After that, the Sailor bought himself an iPod touch and when I started playing too much Fruit Ninja on it, he bought me my own. Apps, music and calendar entries galore ensued. My iPod touch and I were inseparable. And, as my old faithful Nokia started falling apart (literally -- keys cracked and those little rubber stoppers meant to keep dust out of crevices were suddenly missing...) we realized it was time for a new phone. Not just any phone though. I was finally going to get an iPhone.

Once I transferred my data, I gave my mom my iPod touch (part of our 'no need for excess' household policy) and I was thrilled to now have everything on ONE device.   

But that one device soon went everywhere with me. I'd take it to get the mail. Or to the gym, even if I wasn't listening to music. I'd walk to the garden, thinking that I was just going to take photos of growing peppers, but in reality, there was a slight bit of separation anxiety if I was away from it for too long. If I left the phone on the counter, I'd check it as soon as I walked in the door.

It was the first thing I looked at before I even got out of bed, and the last thing I looked at before I switched the lights off at night. 

I am not a Hollywood celebrity. Wall Street does not depend on me getting all of my messages. I don't have a job where lives are at stake if I don't answer my phone. I don't need to be with my phone ALL OF THE TIME.

3. It is good (and necessary) for my creativity to disconnect every once in a while.

I may not have crocheted or created more than usual lately, but I feel like I had a few extra hours in the day to breathe and to think. The other night I sat on the balcony, candles burning. My drink was finished and it was too dark to continue knitting. I was about to go inside -- what would people think if they saw me just sitting there, doing nothing? But I stayed anyway. Sometimes you need to do absolutely nothing. (It's also good for your neck to look up once in a while. Your chiropractor will thank you.) 

Over the past few days, I realized that I sometimes spend more time looking to see what other people are blogging or tweeting about, than I do on any actual creative project. I have a renewed sense that I need to set aside more unplugged time to brood over ideas and projects. Technology for sure has its place (I'm a total closet tech geek, if you couldn't already tell...) But sometimes it gets in the way of plain and simple imagination.

Apparently sometimes I need to simply unplug and watch a candle flicker. Who knows - it may spark the next great idea. Hopefully though, next time I'll do so willingly, and not because of another phone incident.

iPhoneless

Do you hear that? 

That sound? Is that a phone ringing? A text message coming through? An alarm clock chiming? 

You don't hear it? 

Well, neither do I.

There has been radio silence here in the apartment this week while my iPhone tries to recover from its own little mishap.

I neglected to mention earlier, that while I had my foot in the obligatory epsom salt soak on Tuesday (as per the doctor's orders) I had another little accident. And this time, it was even more painful and will probably be somewhat more costly than tripping over that stupid rusty wire. 

I dropped my iPhone in that same water. 

GASP. 

(Just take a moment to let that sink in.)

Thankfully, in this day of great technology, I still have a computer that works, along with an Internet connection. (I also have a great iPhone case that bore the brunt of the soaking...) The Sailor is still maneuvering around the waters an ocean away, and yet I could still tell him via instant message what happened. I sent my mom an email to tell her I wouldn't be able to FaceTime with her this week. I called my in-laws from Skype and told them I was alive. I put out an alert on Facebook (as embarrassing as it was...) to say that my phone wasn't working. 

I don't think any of us realize how dependent we are on something until it's gone. I didn't realize that I have no other alarm clock in the apartment until my iPhone died. I found myself holding my car keys in my hands, wondering if it was safe drive somewhere without a phone. It felt so 1992. (Wow, the chances we took. What if something happened? Flat tire? What if we got lost?)

Except in 1992 we looked at a paper map and we just stopped to use a pay phone if something happened. (What's that? There's no pay phones nowadays? Of course there are. Every person you see is a walking pay phone. I figured that if something bad TRULY happened, I'd be around enough other people who had phones I could simply borrow. The Sailor did it once in an airport when his phone stopped working. Strangers are nicer than you think, on occasion.) 

Sometimes silence is good. I think I was getting a little too distracted by my phone. Plus my foot was throbbing. So I sat down and I started knitting this again. 

And then when I went to keep track of my rows, I realized that my knit counter is an app ON my iPhone. I think the bird is actually laughing at me.

<SIGH>

What's the worst thing you've ever done to your phone? And did it recover? More importantly, did YOU recover?