Look at the subtle difference between knowing if I have managed to live without a mobile or survive without it. The two options are correct and I have been able to experience them but some would only be able to live without a mobile, not to survive. There is too much dependence on information and staying connected. It is not so easy today to disappear from digital life. I can say that I have managed to live without a mobile for 2 days. This is my experience.
n the last 10-12 years I had never broken a cell phone. I had neither dropped it, nor had it been stolen, nor had I lost it.
I have lived the last years with 2-3 mobiles and if I have changed any it has been because a good friend always buys the latest iPhone, and he gives me the previous one.
The last one I had was the iPhone 7 Plus. It still is. Although I don’t have it right now.
What is it like to live without a mobile phone for more than 48 hours?
In about 2-3 hours I will have the mobile again. The screen broke and they are fixing it.
Lately I find myself at a point where I have many doubts. And it was very clear that the day was going to come when he was going to ask me:
Do I really need a mobile?
After being 48 hours without a mobile I have to answer yes. Trust me I would mean no. But today I think it is necessary. It is not so much to make calls, to take photos, to watch the networks, to waste time in the moments that you are not sure what to do.
No, it is not essential for this. But if it is, for example, to make a transfer. Because I wanted to make a transfer and to improve the security of payments, I need to have a mobile with me. So they send me a code that confirms the payment. I couldn’t make the transfer.
It is necessary in the things that apparently are not so necessary. Nor will I be making transfers every day. And you think that the need to have a mobile goes beyond a transfer. You need to make calls, take photos… no, that’s not a necessity. That is an addiction, or a pleasure, or a tool to advance your time but it is not as necessary as you think.
He was not at all worried about not having a cell phone. Although my wife is in Morocco right now, I was able to send her a message through Facebook informing her that she could not contact me on WhatsApp. Thus, somehow, that need for protection was already assured. My wife knows I don’t have a cell phone right now. She is calm and so am I.
The worry of living disconnected came from where I least expected
Image from Pixabay
Relatively recently, my mother has had her mobile on all day. For too many years she would turn it on only to use it when she thought she should. There was no way to talk to her unless you found her at home. Each of her children asked her to keep it on. I don’t know why but now you can call her and she will answer you.
I called home yesterday to tell him I was offline. He had no mobile. I didn’t find her so I told her current partner. But the message did not get through. Today I called her again. And I was relieved. You asked me if I was okay. What was wrong with me. Well, I didn’t know what she meant. The answer was in the messages that he had sent me and had not read and the calls to the mobile that he had not answered. I was worried.
In the end, I explained that I did not have a mobile. It had been broken and had been without a mobile for 48 hours but there was no problem. He surprised me when he told me that he came to see me at my house. He was even more concerned since I was gone. On the street he found a friend and told him to look for me, that he didn’t know anything about me.
The truth, I did not understand. I had been able to live 48 hours without a mobile and my mother, the one who did not turn on her mobile except to use it, had not been able not to worry.
The eternal overprotection. Mama bear, in charge of her cubs. But I am 40 years old. My mother cannot and should not worry more than what I do.
But that need to be continuously in contact. That ability to talk to someone in a matter of seconds, just with a few keys, means that there is no option to not be connected. The world and its technological and over-information maelstrom, I don’t think it contributes anything to my life. This informational overload seems like it should keep you in touch with any kind of data. The need becomes a vital need for it to be digital.
