The Blessing and Curse of Technology (Learning Experiences Part 3)

Coming from Arizona, I do not exactly have a great grasp on how to deal with crazy and abnormal weather. I grew up my whole life with sunny skies almost every day. Clouds in the sky were rare and rain was even more of an anomaly. I still remember one time when I was shopping in target while I was in high school and it started raining. Everyone freaked out and did not know how to handle themselves. Many people took pictures of the rain and posted them social media, as if to prove that it is not always sunny in Arizona. To put things a little further in perspective, the first time it rained in Texas during my freshman year at TCU was the first time I had ever used an umbrella in my life. I never had the need for an umbrella, rain boots, winter clothes or anything else of that nature before. As a result, the bipolar weather of Texas proved to be quite a shock when I first came here.

I thought I had gotten accustomed to the weather here in Fort Worth. However, that was all until the storm of last weekend happened. As pathetic as it sounds, I have never seen that much rain in my life. I still haven’t invested in a pair of rain boots, so that made walking outside in the rain a lot more difficult; I went to all my classes on Friday with wet shoes and socks. However, the biggest causality of the storm was my phone. I was walking to dinner on Thursday night in the BLUU and it was pouring rain. I put my phone in the pocket of my rain coat (not the protective Velcro pouch that I discovered later). As a result, my phone got drenched in my pocket. Being the smart, honors student that I am, I did not notice that my phone was wet, so it sat around in its dampness for a while. This was the downfall for my phone, and while I was at dinner, my phone started to malfunction. The screen kept fading in and out with different colors—red, black, white and blue. My friend and I looked up what this meant, and apparently the red screen is called the “red screen of death.”  I concluded my phone was toast. I asked around to see if anyone knew if there was anything I could do to salvage my phone. Someone suggested putting my phone in a bag of rice. At this point, I was desperate, so the next day, I bought rice from Kroger and put my phone in it.

While I was without a phone, I actually learned a lot about how dependent I am on technology. When I did not have my phone on Friday for class, I felt naked. To clarify, I did not have the safety net of looking at my phone when I had no one to talk to. I did not realize I looked at my phone so much between classes, while studying and so many other times of the day. The largest issue for me, though, was communication. I had pretty much no way to communicate with my friends to ask where they were at, when they were eating dinner and what they were doing that night. I tried to communicate with them through Facebook messenger on my computer, but many of them never check Facebook, making communication challenging. Moreover, it was nearly impossible to get ahold of my parents to tell them my phone was broken. This snowballs with not being able to find my friends, because if I was able to find one of them, I would have called one of my parents from a friend’s phone. However, because I had no way to communicate with my friends, I could only hope I would run in to one of them so I could use one of their phones (which did not happen). I had to resort to e-mailing my parents on Friday night telling them that my phone was broken.  

In a sense, I did enjoy not having a phone and being unplugged for a day. I got a ton of homework done because I did not have the distraction of texting and looking at my phone. Moreover, I felt like I was more present in my conversations and was noticing more about my surroundings. I was focused on living in the moment and was not worried about what I had to do in an hour, or who was texting me to meet up somewhere. Not having my phone allowed me to take a step back, look around and appreciate my surroundings.

Miraculously, the bag of rice worked its magic on my phone and it came back from the dead on Saturday afternoon. I was not expecting this at all and assumed I would not have a phone for a week or so. This was a pleasant surprise, however, I did learn a lot from my experience without a phone. First of all, I am reliant on technology. I have been working on not using my phone as much. For instance, I will turn my phone off when I study now. Second, I am trying to use my phone less when I am in large groups of people. If I am with a group of friends or acquaintances, I put my phone away and talk to them instead. After this experience, I understand the importance of acting in the moment and being present in my conversations.

I believe that my phone breaking was a blessing in disguise. If my phone did not break on me, I do not think I would have understood how much technology engulfs my life. Technology is such a great tool to employ, but I have to be careful not to over-utilize it to the point where I do take the time to talk to the people around me and appreciate my surroundings. I am thankful for this experience so I was able to learn this lesson. At the same time, I am also slightly thankful that my phone survived the rain so I did not have to buy a new one!