I dropped my phone in the toilet.
Ever since I’ve had a smart phone it has been with me day and night, even when nature calls. Why would I want to read a magazine in the bathroom when I could play Angry Birds or listen to a podcast? My phone has ventured into the bathroom with me countless times, always escaping unscathed.
Until yesterday.
Now instead of resting at my hip in my super cool phone holster, my beautiful iPhone 4 is resting in a bag of rice on life support. Honestly it feels like a part of me has been cut off. When people lose limbs they say they feel phantom pains where their leg or arm used to be. I feel the same way; I go to reach for my phone to tweet or text but there’s nothing there.
After dropping my phone in the toilet I spent the rest of the night getting my old phone set up and ready to go. I had to get my email setup, Tweetdeck, Facebook and Words with Friends; it’s like I went into disaster recovery mode. With my phone out of commission I had to work as fast as I possibly could in order to reconnect with the world from which I had been so cruelly unplugged.
And when I finally got reconnected do you know what I had missed?
Nothing.
Nothing at all.
Sure I had missed a few tweets and status updates. I had missed out on immediately receiving some junk mail. But in the end, even though I felt extremely disconnected, I really hadn’t missed anything.
Sometimes it feels like we have come to view technology as the ends instead of just the means. I love technology and it has greatly improved our lives. Even narrowing down the focus, I love social networking. The opportunity to stay connected with my friends, coworkers and students through Twitter, Facebook and texting is amazing. But sometimes I get so consumed with social networking that I forget it’s just a means to the goal of strengthening relationships, not the goal itself.
It felt like when I dropped my phone in the toilet that I’d lost my ability to connect and communicate with others. It’s not like I had lost my ability to speak, write or listen, I’d just lost the ability to do that through my phone. Outside the bathroom there was a large group of people with whom I could connect, even without the advent of a phone.
So even though I miss my phone and I wish I hadn’t dropped it in the toilet, like Gloria Gaynor said, I will survive.
Hey hey.
Are we too dependent on technology to connect and communicate with others? Why or why not?
OMG what is it with people drooping there phones in the toilet! I just put my phone on my sofa when I need to goto the bath room. If I’m in public and I need to use the restroom I just leave my phone in my pocket.
I know. It’s an addiction. You’ve never used the bathroom until you’ve used it while tweeting.
Ouch. I hope it comes out of life support. I’m rooting for you. My toilet dropped iPhone 4 is still working great.
instead of spending too much time connected with the “world” why not being connected with the Lord! praying, fasting, and worshipping! when is needed!