Dephoned

The other morning I booted my phone after my shower, holding down the power button and waiting for the little bump telling me it was starting up. The bump didn't come.

Lots of retries and it was still the same. Was my smartphone bricked? I did a bit of searching for solutions. I went to my service provider's site looking for warranty information and was reminded how unhelpful these can be - tons of answers about buying and adding services, but not a lot of information on solving problems.

I was feeling frustrated - I have to go to work soon; I don't have time for this. Also a bit of betrayal - how could this phone stop working after just two years? I considered that perhaps it's time for a new phone, and part of me enjoyed fantasizing about new gadgetry and features.

At any rate, after getting on with my morning, I later thought to try popping the battery out and in. I'd never opened the case so I had to search for instructions, but ... it booted right up afterwards.

I had two takeaways from the experience.

One was how quickly we're willing to forgive when technology we come to rely on suddenly works again.

Another was, on the train that morning, looking around at every other face turned down toward a glass rectangle of varying size, how naked I'd feel without one myself.