Phone Culture

This last week I got a new phone. My old one started to close out of apps that I was using and the battery life was pretty bad. Thankfully I had the option of getting one of the latest models, one of the Pixel 7 line. Obviously the new phone had updated features and a improved camera, which were big pluses for me when picking out which one to go with. But this whole process has brought a few things to mind that I didn’t think of before.

Since my phone was ordered online, and was being shipped to my house, I had to wait for it to arrive in the mail. I took the time to search Amazon for a new case that was both decent protection and still fun to look at. I ended up with a blue case that has some fun colors on the back. The drawback I found here is that my case wasn’t scheduled to arrive until Friday, the phone was projected to be in my hands by Thursday. That meant I would have some time where my phone wasn’t covered in a case, while it was in my hands.

I am a fairly clumsy person. This fact has always made me giggle due to the fact that I danced for color guard in high school, which required grace. Normally the two don’t match up. Anyways, this is the reason I have always tried my best to find a case that would really protect my phone. Lucky for me, I haven’t broken a phone yet, it is always “old age” that takes them out.

But the search for a case, and that time spent without, had gotten me thinking. Why would anyone choose to go without a case on their device? My mom always said, you pay quite a bit for that phone so it is worth your investment to pay for a decent case to protect it. So why, when you have the option of paying a little more to protect your phone, would you willing take the risk of making it easier to break?

Another thought that came to mind, is the amount of apps I have on my phone. When you have to transfer all your information and these days that incudes the apps, everything gets logged out or reset most of the time. So I have ended up deleting several apps that moved over and I realized that I hadn’t opened them in several months. So I got curious if that process is the same for everyone. Do you remove apps your not using periodically? Maybe I should start trying to implement that practice with my phone? Please let me know what you think.

One thing I will forever be thankful for though is that I am able to have a phone. That device allows me to stay in contact with my three best friends, and my friends from high school. I use it often to text my friend who lives in Virginia, sending her pictures just to make her smile when she has had a rough day. Because of my phone, I was able to send another friend a pride filled text when she graduated with her doctorate in veterinary medicine. Almost every day I get sent cute photos of my honorary niece and nephew and all their cute faces, thanks to their loving mommy, who is also my friend.

What comes to mind when you think of how cell phones are handled now, vs what they were when they first became a thing? Please let me know in the comments. I would love to hear from you.