I had plenty of topics on my mind for today’s blog post- until at about 10 AM this morning, as I was deleting an unwanted email, my Phone suddenly stopped working.

Actually , it went into this weird thing called bootloop, where I could only get to the introduction screen before it restarted all over again. Over and over and over again.

To say that this ensured that both my phone and sanity would malfunction for the rest of the day is an understatement.

I can’t deny: I am a product of the day and age we live in. And that means that like many others, I often consider my phone as an extra limb. Where I once needed several electronic and non-electronic means to get about with my day, now only needs a single device that I can carry in my pocket at all times- and that makes me almost utterly dependent on it.

It’s not that I didn’t have access to the internet throughout the day, it’s just how inconvenient it all felt. An inconvenience that I could’ve been much better off without.

In fact, one of the first thoughts I had as I tried relentlessly to get it to function was how would I run with NRC later during the day if I didn’t have the corresponding Nike app. Sure, running is great and all but its significance would be lost without knowing the distance, time, and pace I was able to achieve.

Not being able to use Whatsapp, my primary method of communication for leisure and often work, was the most frustrating. To go from instantly reading any message to not being involved in the conversation at all is just not something I am used to- and I don’t know to what extent I am willing to adjust to that notion.

At one point in time, I really got me thinking about how we used to talk to one another before such technologies were made available, joking that if anyone should need to reach me, their best bet is sending me a pigeon.

Am I too old for remembering how we all used to have phonebooks to store all our contacts’ numbers? Now my phone does that job. So much so that if I were ever without my mobile and needed to call my own sister, I wouldn’t be able to because I do not know her number without having to look it up.

Or later when we finally got internet, we were only allocated an hour or so a day to go on MSN and chat. This is a far, far cry from how some discussions with friends are conducted in chunks, whenever we can find a minute to look at our phones.

Now, I won’t deny that after I got over the initial frustration many hours later, it slightly felt good to be disconnected, as sometimes there’s no harm in not knowing what’s going on at all times. It’s just sad that this is a lesson that needs to be learned the hard way.

And of course, it made for a great joke that my work beeper was more advanced  and effective than the phone I had bought just last year.

The device, thankfully, is still under warranty so it has been sent to be repaired without so much of hesitation. Here’s hoping I get the final verdict tomorrow- because right now I’m getting by on the last phone I had, which unsurprisingly was discarded for the very same bootloop issue.

Any more bootlooping and I might do so myself!