After a night out last week, one of the scariest things to ever happen to a collegiate happened to me. I realized upon getting back to my dorm that I did not have my phone with me. However, after 36 hours of serious detective work that included running all around campus and even Worcester and with the help of the find my iphone app, my phone and I were thankfully reunited. This time spent apart, though, gave me a new perspective on our very digital dependent world. It allowed me to take a step back and live partially off the grid for a few days. Here are 6 things I have learned from going through this (tragic?) experience:
1. You Gain So Much More Time: Without feeling the need/desire to constantly check your instagram or facebook, you have more time and attention to put toward your 10-page essay or new Netflix obsession or even whatever issue/crisis your roommate is going through at the time.
2. You Earn a Sense of Independence:At the start of the second day of being phoneless, my sense of urgency and anxiety began to subside. My thumbs began to relax. Though you do still feel anxious when you don’t have immediate access to people and plans, I realized that even though my phone had disappeared, I had not. I knew that though I may have missed an important text from that cutie from calc or learning that one member in my group chat had fallen down the stairs of Dinand…I would still learn all of these things, just on my own time.
3. You Notice Your Surroundings More: When walking to class or even while at a restaurant, think about all the time you spend mindlessly looking at your phone. I know for me personally, I find myself unlocking my phone for no reason at all other than just out of pure habit. Being without a phone allowed me to notice the different people we have on this campus as well as the many green patches of grass that have started to appear. Moreover, I was able to check in with myself and how I was feeling or what I was going through.
4. You Realize How Much of Your Life is Affected by Knowing What Time It Is:Without the alarm app on your phone, you’ll have to rely on your roommate’s schedule or just hope and pray that the sun shining through the shades of your windows will be enough. You’ll be forever questioning the time you’ve been waiting for your stir-fry or for your friend who was supposed to meet you at cool beans for that “study-sesh…”
5. Changing Plans is No Longer an Option:You can’t let your friends know of the cute guy your talking to at the bar or maybe more importantly, they can’t tell you that they’re retreating to another venue. You’ll either be left alone or be attached at the hip of one of your friends for the entirety of the night.
6. Maybe the Saddest Realization of all, You Learn that You will Lose all the Pictures you had on Your Phone:The random pictures with people you meet in the bathroom, the “pretty” snapchat screenshots of your friends, or the cute pictures from your latest pregame. ALL GONE. Even worse? You can’t instagram. You’ll have to find satisfaction in pictures you’ve taken without 108 likes and 9 comments assuring you of your photographic genius.
In the end, hopefully you’ll be reunited with your phone, but if not, it is not the end of the world. A phone is replaceable, but the experiences of going semi off the grid are not. This time spent on your own will undoubtedly give you clarity in what is truly important in life…the ability to make connections and memories in person not through the screen of a phone.