This week has been a hot mess of a week. I’ve been woken up hours before my alarm by my dog so he can pee outside instead of inside. I’ve gotten a parking ticket for being 10 minutes shy of the free parking mark. But the worst thing this week was probably the day I forgot my cell phone at home when I had work.
In reality, it’s not a big deal if you forget your phone. There are a million other ways for people to contact you. Your phone is just one outlet of a few possibilities. To be fair, you probably rarely use your phone for phone calls to begin with. And that’s my issue. My phone’s primary use is to keep me occupied for 2 minutes instead of doing nothing for 2 minutes. Without my phone, I had to pay attention to the road my entire commute! I saw stoplights turn from green, to yellow, to red, to green again! I had to look at the homeless people asking for change instead of looking at my blank screen. My only fear of getting pulled over was from speeding which I wasn’t doing anyway because traffic in Boston sucks. During the day I had to actually pay attention to my work without random Facebook breaks. How was I supposed to post an amusing status or know if someone wrote on my wall?? It was torture. I couldn’t even tweet about leaving my phone at home so all my Twitter followers would know I wasn’t ignoring them! Sorry, everyone, I know how important being responded to is.
The entire day was filled with thoughts about my phone. I couldn’t Google something if I had a question, I had to…ask. Ugh, actually speak to someone. I constantly checked my pockets like I had OCD searching for that small rectangular object. On my drive to work I was frantically sifting through my bag for my nonexistent phone. No pocket went unopened, no paper went unmoved. I was removing the contents while driving (not a great idea) because I was convinced I brought my phone. My hands revisited my coat pockets several times in hopes my phone would magically reappear and some gremlin was just playing a trick on me. Screw you, gremlins! But nope, no phone to be found.
Worst of all, I was afraid that when I did get reunited with my phone I would have zero notifications. No texts, no emails, no Facebook comments. That fear haunted me all day. How depressing would that be to return to your phone, after a whole day of worrying about someone needing to contact you, when, in fact, no one actually did.
That’s about right.
It’s depressing how reliant our society is on our cell phones. I’m guilty of needing it to the point of being addicted. Forgetting it didn’t necessarily get in the way of my daily life, but I was certainly thinking about it all day. It’s a comfort. A phone in your hand is more acceptable than walking around with a security blanket, and it does cooler things. The day my phone can keep me warm, though, that will be a great day.
Call me.
Toby
Kram Comedy Speaks 