Some weeks ago, I managed to smash my iPhone to bits. The damage was bad enough for the repair dude to exclaim it was the worst he had seen thus far. The bill for repair would have come up to $225 and the device still wouldn't have worked properly. So I decided to fix the connector to get my data out - a $50 punishment for my silly antics. No more WhatsApp, no more Instagram, no more Scrabble, no more Angry Birds.
My first subsitute was my sister's Blackberry 9500. It was the simplest option available. I decided to take my chances. It has a touch screen and mobile Internet capabilities. I tried installing the Facebook app but it refused to work. It's wonky in the sense the brower has the Starhub logo upon startup while connecting through a Singtel SIM card. Then it started to hang and perform slower than usual. Randomly, it would refuse the data connection.
So I decided to swing the other way completely - I got the lowest end Nokia possible, the Nokia 1280 for $38 from an Ah Beng shop in Hougang. The motivation was not have a potentially wonky phone knowing full well I would not have any music or the Internet. I went forth with my reservist-friendly choice (it had no camera too) (notice the change in tense). I had to SMS with the old skool alphanumeric keypad. It couldn't read my SIM card contact beyond N and so spent a weekend night manually entering names and numbers. I chose sensible tones and updated profiles. All very basic and simple, and refreshingly fun. I later found that I could not hear callers clearly. That was the only real setback for which I was about to get the accompanying earpiece. I had learnt to let go quite effectively and adjusted to the initial technological catastrophe nicely.
A few days ago, I left my precious retro fling in the back of a taxi. It was too late to do anything when I discovered the loss.
Now, I have reverted to my sister's Blackberry in the hope it would last till my upgrade period kicks in - 10 October. What I learned from this experience is that sometimes we attach ourselves too strongly to material things that we feel we cannot live without. I know a guy who went out and got a replacement iPhone within a day when his went missing for fear for further iPhone-rejection symptoms. I was pissed when I lost the Nokia because of the sudden inconvenience and the wasted effort to key in all those numbers. Took a few hours to get over that. It was made simpler when I compared the matter to the incompetence and inefficiencies I encountered on a half visit back to the army for a reservist mobilization briefing.
Perspective - important to re-evaluate yours every now and then.
2 comments:
for the wasted time and frustration, it would have been more cost effective in getting new iphone
Really? Despite the inconvenience, I took the experience as a retraining of the mind, an exercise in flexibility. We get so used to the things we have and need that we become rigid in our ways, unable to cope with and in this case, some measure of adversity even.
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