On Life Without a Working Phone

Happy New Year to the probably -10 people that read this blog. This is sort of a delayed post since I was too excited to go home for the holidays I couldn’t really focus on blogging or my broken phone for that matter. I also have few photos in this post because the wifi in my new airBnB does not work and I wanted this to still be able to be uploaded.

A few weeks before I was supposed to head home for the holidays, I broke my phone and was no longer able to use it. If you know me, you know that I am pretty dependent on my phone. It’s something that I know isn’t the best in this day and age, but I also recognize that I use my phone to keep in touch with people, something I pride myself on being quite good at.

Anyway, my phone was already on the back nine before I left for France, and I was planning to get a new one once Apple released the new models (it’s sad how we govern our lives around tech companies… alas). Once I decided to come home for Christmas due to confinement and the nature of the pandemic, I asked for a new one for Christmas so I could get it once I was home.

Cut to two weeks before I’m supposed to be home, and I drop my phone for the nth time. It’s the straw that breaks the camel’s back, and my phone is completely unusable. Luckily, I have an Apple watch and an iPad. When I’m at home, I’m able to use my iPad to communicate with my loved ones and FaceTime. When I’m out and about, if my phone is charged, I get all texts through my watch. Cue many funny moments of me talking to my wrist and French people looking at me like I have five heads.

These two weeks were definitely a growth period for me in a lot of ways, but also created a lot of opportunities for me to find the comedy in life instead of breaking down. Me pre-pandemic probably would have freaked the f out about having a broken phone. It is really freaking hard living in a foreign country far away from home, and a phone is one of the best and easiest ways to stay connected. But me in a pandemic, recognizing that nothing goes as it’s supposed to, found a lot of moments to laugh about having to use my watch to communicate and a very broken phone that took on a mind of its own. Highlights (said à la The Reynolds Pamphlet in Hamilton):

my phone still had tactile capabilities in the sense that it would react to touch, but not necessarily my touch. This resulted in 8 FaceTimes to my friend Margaret one morning before 8 am, as well as a lot of texts full of gibberish to Jack.
talking to my watch was really comical. But talking to my watch in French was even funnier because it showed me how my accent could sound, seeing as most of the words I said were spelled incorrectly…
a few days before I was supposed to go home, my airBnB’s hot water heater burst. This was a headache in general seeing as I did not have a vocabulary section on plumbing in high school French and my host/landlord is classically French and unavailable. I spent a lot of time taking pictures of the heater with my iPad while on the phone with the plumber through my watch.
to get home, I had planned to take a TGV from Avignon to the airport, then a plane. I knew once I got to the airport I would be able to print my boarding pass, but France’s train system requires you to have your ticket on your phone. I was able to get my ticket on my iPad, but finagling my luggage through the barrier while trying to get the machine to recognize my iPad was truly a challenge. It took so long that once the door finally opened they no longer registered a person was there and the security guard had to manually unlock the gate for me.

In addition to all the comedy this situation brought, I also learned a lot. If you’ve ever looked at screen time, you’ll know Apple also keeps track of how many times you pick up your phone. Once you no longer have a working screen, there’s no reason to pick up your phone and aimlessly scroll or check your apps. I hoped that this was a habit I had kicked entirely in my two weeks being unable to do it, but on the plane ride back to France with my new working phone I found myself just picking up my phone, even though I had no internet. They’re an addiction. It sucks.

There were other positives to this time. I was more present in every situation. I found myself listening deeper, hearing more sounds, and smelling all the scents (spending time by the Mediterranean in the Camargue comes to mind for this one). I truly struggle with being present where my feet are - many of us do. Social media has given us a highlight reel of what anyone is doing or has done (in some cases will do) at any given time that it’s easy for us to remember what’s happened or what’s coming up but not the moment we are in now. Without the ability to access social media really, I just found myself being happy with my current situation. I really listened to what those around me were saying. I partook in conversation more. My eyes were less dry from staring at screens too much.

As I’ve mentioned in an earlier blog post, French people aren’t on their phones as much, especially when doing other stuff (read: grocery shopping, walking down the street, etc.). This situation forced me to be more French and I really did enjoy it. While it was at times lonely not talking to a family member or Jack on my walks from the bus, I also got used to the sound of my own breathing (exacerbated by wearing a mask). You’re also more attuned to what’s going on around you, which is definitely important in a big city! When you’re not texting and walking, it’s much easier to not step in the dog food that litters the cities here (that part about Emily in Paris was accurate).

After about a week I realized I could download Instagram on my iPad, but I hadn’t missed it much. Also, there is something about the physical action of tapping through stories on a smaller phone that is so gratifying!!! Why did they create this feature? I didn’t want to scroll as much or tap through on the iPad because it was too bulky, but once I got a phone again I was hooked. Sad how quickly habits come back, but they also say it takes 28 days to break one and I was only halfway there.

It feels like this story has kind of an anticlimactic ending - girl’s phone breaks, learns to live without one, but then gets a new one and reverts to old bad habits. This is all true, but what I will say is this - those two weeks without a phone or as much social media as I usually consume were a blessing in disguise, and they did force me to be more conscious of my technology/social media usage. Even if I launched back into my old ways for the most part, I am also trying to be cognizant and find other things to do. I think coronavirus has forced a lot of us to find other things to do in lieu of being social. There isn’t as much social media out there because nothing is going on. I’ve reintroduced board and card games into my life. I am stoked about that as well. So really, this story was anticlimactic but in a good way. It was once again a reminder of appreciating the little things and being grateful with what I have, as well as taking the hiccups in stride. No thanks to a lot of your BS 2020/COVID, but thanks for that.