Imagine a day without your phone. What would you do? You would be bored as hell, that’s for sure. But let’s take a deeper look. How do you burn your time? What do you do during your free hours? Well, that’s what I’m going to delve into for I spent nearly a month without a smartphone!

I had been having issues with my phone for almost two months during which I couldn’t make or even receive cellular calls. It was tough to not be able to get quality range, especially when you’re in a college like CEG where you only have a few sweet spots to receive good connection.

Long story short, I arranged to get my phone repaired in my hometown hoping I would be able to get it back in its original condition. But to my horror, not only did the phone seem to be irreparable but also was I forced to return to college without it. I placed my final bet on a good Samaritan who promised to resolve the issue as soon as he could, but I soon found out that the repair cost was too high that purchasing a new model felt like a wise choice.

So, not having many choices, I was forced to live without a phone in college till I got a new one. The first few days were tough. Everything seemed to be boring to me. It was actually surprising for me to bypass the 24 hours at hand. It was equally astonishing for me to find out how long a day was.

It may seem idiotic from the outside but living that life had so many benefits that I couldn’t have known otherwise. I’m not going to lie but not having a phone is like being stranded on an island with no outside connection. You travel all the way from the mess to your department under the deadly heat only to find out that the classes have been cancelled and the message has already been conveyed in the class group. That is one of the many annoying experiences that I faced.   

But it is also worth mentioning the other side of the grass.

Waking up every day with the blue light illuminating our face the moment our eyelids open for another start, or slacking off on our couch scrolling through media junk has become so rooted in our lives. So much so, that we are searching for ways to stay focused. Without a smartphone, I could realise how many distractions I was surrounded with. It was boring but sometimes boring was fun. Without the constant dopamine hit, I was able to think of the craziest ways to keep myself entertained. Without anything to do, I was able to make some genuine connections with people out there. You do not make eye contact with strangers and start random conversions when your eyes are glued to the screen, do you? Once I had nothing to do, it was fascinating to truly understand myself and my needs. I also had the opportunity to stay focused and find my true potential myself, which is very rare to attain nowadays.

Anyways, living without a phone in today’s digitalised world is not suggested to do. We have all become used to the comfort of instant communication. Without that comfort, it is difficult to navigate especially in a place like a college where almost all tasks from taking notes to studying in E-books are done using a phone. However, what everyone must practice is mindful evaluation of self-usage and understanding the impact of the distractions caused by it. Cheers to a better future!