As I rode the subway to work this morning I realized, I had left my phone at home. It was the worst. I had an uncomfortable empty feeling inside. I kept compulsively checking my pockets throughout the day.
Throughout the day I kept wondering if I was missing calls or important texts from friends and family. The world seemed so tweetable. Everywhere I looked I wanted to make funny commentary or post photos to my online friends. People with misspelled t-shirts, funny dogs, overheard conversations. The catch 22 is that I may not have even noticed those things normally if I was looking at my phone.
The one thing that bothered me the most is that when I was commuting, I had no concept of time. After having a phone, I was no longer wearing watches. I had places to go after work and almost leaned over to look at someone else’s phone to check the time. I thought someone would think I was crazy if I asked them for the time. I mean, who does that anymore right?
Mostly I didn’t know what to do with my hands a lot of the time. I forgot my book, gameboy and my mp3 player had also ran out of battery. At work, I was fine. I didn’t really need my phone and I might have even been more productive since I didn’t need to check it all the time. I did receive a package I really wanted to take a photo of. I ended up searching for “online webcams” (which I don’t recommend doing at work) so I could somehow use the webcam on my work computer. It’s amazing how convenient having a camera on your phone is.
Anyways, I learned that I will never forget my phone again. As nice as it is to be “sort of” unplugged. It creates more anxiety than it is worth for me.
Tiana Feng 