A few months ago, my iPhone and I were going through a rough patch. Whenever I was waiting in line or riding in the car or just bored in my room, I would turn to it for entertainment. Time that I used to use to contemplate little things or just take in my surroundings was being spent with my iPhone instead. We were together too much—and worse than that, I was beginning to resent it. I knew that I needed to really figure out who I was without it.
It was around that time that I ran into an old phone that I had almost forgotten about. It was a slide phone with a built in keyboard, the coolest phone in school back when we were together. It looked exactly the same as I remembered. One thing led to another, and I ended up deciding to take a chance and switch back to my slide phone. I knew that there was a pretty good chance that I would come back to my iPhone, but I was excited to see where my relationship with the slide phone would go.
Being with my slide phone was a positive experience, but it was difficult. I had to relearn its little quirks, like having to delete text messages from its inbox and having all pictures sent to me show up as 1cm x 1 cm thumbnails. But worse than that, I learned that it hadn’t adjusted well to the changes of the past few years. Messages that had any emojis in them just showed up blank. Group messages showed up as individual texts from different people instead of being one thread. As bad as it sounds, after being with such a smartphone for so long, my slide phone was just too dumb. On the plus side, the physical relationship with my slide phone was much more satisfying than the physical relationship I had with my iPhone. Sliding a phone shut feels more final than pressing a lock button, and a keyboard with physical buttons is more satisfying to type on than one with virtual buttons.
But in the end, I realized that the relationship that I had with my slide phone was not the type of relationship that was meant to last forever. I needed to make it work with my iPhone. I found it right where I had left it, and we were back together within the day. Pretty soon, I could tell that things were different. I had a greater appreciation for all of its positive qualities instead of just taking them for granted. The time that I spent without it had helped me realize which qualities were most important to me in a phone, and my iPhone checked all the boxes.
Taking a break from my iPhone was the best decision that I could have made. If you are ever having doubts, remember that time apart could be all that you need to build the strongest relationship with your phone.
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