60 Minutes of Torture

Today I experienced 60 minutes of absolute torture.  And here's the kicker, I not only voluntarily agreed to put myself through this madness, I willingly paid $100 for it!

About 2 months ago, my cell phone had an unfortunate meeting with my gravel driveway and because I had just recently removed the protective case from my phone, the gravel driveway won the battle leaving the cell phone with a cracked screen.

Because there's not an overnight cell phone repair store that fixes and charges your phone while you sleep therefore eliminating the inconvenience of being without your cell during the workday, today is the first day I felt I could afford to miss a few calls.

So at 10:23 this morning my 60 minutes of torture began.

For the hour it was going to take to fix my phone, I decided to take that opportunity to run some errands, which included a trip to the pharmacy.  It was while I was sitting at the pharmacy waiting for my prescription to be filled that I realized I. WAS. IN. HELL.

As I'm sure you've figured out, the cause of my turmoil is the absence of my cell phone - but not because I couldn't make or receive phone calls.  No, no - it was because my cell phone is my connection to the outside world even though I was located in the actual "OUTSIDE WORLD"!  I wasn't sitting at my house alone or locked in a closet - I was in a store with real life people and didn't have social media or news aps or emails to keep me company!  I didn't even know what time it was because my cell phone is my watch.

I was slapped in the face with the realization that just like the rest of today's society - I have morphed into a person who is more tuned in with the "friends" they have never even met or seen in person rather than being tuned in to the world around them.  A person who hides behind a little 3x4 screen to avoid having to interact with the people around them.

15 years ago a cell phone's only function was to make very expensive mobile phone calls.  10 years ago the cell phone added the ability to send a text message if you had enough patience to press 13 buttons just to type out the 5 letter word "hello".  And 5 years ago the smartphone gave us remote access to "CyberWorld" therefore hammering the final nail into the coffin that has buried our ability to be in a public location both physically and mentally.

So I challenge you - the next time you are in a public place by yourself - don't let your smartphone transport you to "Cyberville" - stay connected to the real world where you have an opportunity to make a real life friend and not a cyber-friend!

Today I voluntarily paid $100 for "60 minutes of torture" for which I gained a new cell phone screen, a protective cell phone case and a realization that I need to reconnect to the real world.