"What are the moments you are holding onto? What are you letting go of today?"
Using today's writing prompt...
The "dangerously full" warning was flashing on my phone. Ugh, I thought, again? I've already deleted a memory-eating app and several hundred pictures. Guess I need to go through the apps and gallery again. I'll do it on Saturday.
That was Wednesday.
During my weekly Thursday road trip, the phone decided to die while I was posting a picture to Facebook from the shoulder of a country highway. Oh, well, I thought, I'll get it up and running when I get home. An hour later at another stop, the phone was fine again. It worked all day Friday, too.
Saturday morning...I turned it over to find it in constant reboot mode. After Googling and fiddling and cursing, I gave up. My kind husband Googled and fiddled, then took it to a repair shop. Could just be the battery, they said--a glimmer of hope.
Monday afternoon, the phone was back home, still broken. Not just the battery, apparently. I'll be contacting tech support later today.
What am I holding onto with this phone? Thankfully, I downloaded all the pictures to my computer a month ago; the only one I would really miss from these past few weeks is a selfie with my son. I use my phone to track my walking routes, practice Spanish and Japanese, keep in touch with my daughter in Japan via LINE, time my meditations. My fitness band syncs with a phone app to record my steps and my sleep patterns; I use another app to track calories. There are dozens of unmemorized phone numbers of friends, family, colleagues in my contacts list.
For the past few days, I have had to let go of having these conveniences and information at hand. I am able to continue my language practice and fill in my food journal on my computer, and revisited a folder of meditations I had saved. I have a landline, email, and online social media to stay connected to people.
If tech support can't fix my phone, or at the very least assure me that my data is backed up, I will have to let go of a month's worth of photo memories, several years' worth of texts with my daughter (was I really going to reread those anyway?), possibly progress (or lack of it, ha!) on my fitness app.
Contact information can be regathered. Apps can be reloaded on a new phone. Other than the picture with my son...does anything else on this old phone really, truly matter? I'll find out soon, but my guess is...not really.
I lost a weeks worth of pictures once on a vacation! So frustrating because it was a new phone. I hope yours can be recovered. Incidences like these makes me realize how I rely on technology for better or worse.
ReplyDeleteI was finally able to access the cloud, and lo and behold, my photos were there; whew! Downloaded the missing ones immediately. We have certainly gotten accustomed to having documentation at our fingertips...
DeleteSo much of our lives are on our phones it takes a minute to reboot, so to speak when it's gone. I found I resist getting new technology because I don't want to relearn something. I get so comfortable with my current phone, the thought of something new can be annoying. I hope your data and photos can be saved, best of luck! Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteBy Tuesday, I figured out I would need a new phone. I was on the fence about staying with Android or switching to Apple, like the rest of my family. My son reminded me that it would be easier to transfer all of my "stuff" if I stuck with the same brand; Android, it was. Not too big of a learning curve, thank goodness!
DeleteGood luck. Memory on devices can be tricky. If only it would JUST work like it was supposed to?
ReplyDeleteSomeone on FB made the comment that they are built to break down, thus prompting another purchase. Doesn't really surprise me...sigh.
DeleteChris, your story is one shared by many, but when it is documented for posterity it provides a most tangible reminder how the technology has inveigled itself with invisible tentacles around so many aspects of our lives. The word back-up gains significance when the phone flops over...
ReplyDeleteGreat comment, Alan. I was talking to my collegeboy about the fact that when his older sister was born, we didn't have internet access; that happened when she was three years old, just a couple of years before he came along. He replied with the fact that we now carry the internet around in our pockets...such swift change in two decades!
DeleteI ended up with a new phone...and surprisingly, almost a complete transfer of information, despite the old phone being "dead". I guess everything is stored in the cloud these days--a blessing, but also giving me pause...
ReplyDelete