Journal Snippet || Reminiscing On How I Lived With Half A Phone

For the longest period of my life, I had never felt as handicapped as I have felt in the last six months, simply because my mobile phone went through some changes. It is now that I realize that my whole world really cannot exist without digital technology.

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MeI know, I know. You may be wondering just how dependent my life really is on these tiny semiconductor devices that, you know, were created by humans like myself. If you're a millennial like me, you'll probably be able to relate and won't see my "reliance" on technology of this age as an issue.

You see, I grew up in the time when digital technology began reaching every family in their homes—the time when every single house could have some digital technology at their fingertips.

We didn't have these fancy gadgets we have now when I was a kid. But growing up, all these technologies started booming, and I was privileged enough to explore them at such a young age. It's probably why I'm so immersed in it right now, as they always fascinate me.

I was usually the kid my folks, neighbors, and other old peeps around me would reach out to whenever they had some issues with their devices. And when I did solve their problems, I looked like a tech prodigy to them, which I wasn't.

Fast forward to why we are here...

I went to bed one Saturday night like a normal person would, but with my phone close to me, as I usually just fall asleep in the middle of doing something on my phone (usually playing chess). And then the following morning, which should have been a normal Sunday morning, I woke up to find half of my screen (vertically) blank.

I could see only one half of the screen just fine, but the left half was just black all the way. So I couldn't even see anything that was displayed on that side, but the entire screen's touch response was perfectly fine. This was just the beginning of my rollercoaster ride with the phone.

Doing my normal activities with my phone slowly became much more of a challenge as I really could not navigate the phone easily. It was then that I began to use my PC more—mostly for doing Hive.

I had only joined Hive recently, and I was just getting the hang of the whole engagement idea. So that was a pretty good (or bad) excuse to just become inactive because I wasn't used to using my PC much.

But they say blessings come in disguise, right? Well, I didn't ask for this kind of disguise, but in hindsight, I am grateful that my phone went bad.

You see, I never really used my PC to do more than just watch Netflix and chill and read school documents. I never bother with anything else because my phone can do so much for me.But now that it was on sabbatical, I had to learn, relearn, and unlearn.

The first challenge was that I couldn't type. My prowess on the keyboard on my phone was commendable. You could even call me a ninja typist. I was proficient with speed and swiping. _{The inventor of swipe typing is a genius, I must say.} But on the keyboard of my PC, I couldn't do much...after playing Mavis Beacon so much as a kid. I guess that's what a lack of practice does.

Thanks to my brother, @ starstrings01, and his impressively intimidating dexterity with typing on keyboards, I was spurred into learning to type. And damn! It was frigging challengingk at first.

I was very inconsistent at first, as it was a big challenge to think of 10 fingers for every word. But then, the drive and spirit of persistency kicked in, and I was determined to push through. I had started learning about it way before the whole phone ordeal, but it was around July that I began to get serious with it. I didn't have many choices.

I started with a speed of 10 WPM on Mavis Beacon, and then I quickly grew to about 20 WPM. MB on my PC began to misbehave eventually, so I opted for online typing sites to learn from and practice with.

And somehow, from then until now, I have been able to hit my highest speed of 69 WPM. How I zoomed from zero to hero in five months is a story I'll sure tell, but for another day.

Fast forward to the present...

You may have wondered, "Why didn't you just get your phone fixed?" Well, the thing is, I really wanted to, but there were some factors that inhibited me and some that made even myself reluctant about it.

I never like to have repairs done on my gadgets, and this is because over here, counterfeit parts are more like the norm. Having my phone repaired came with some caveats. And they centered around the fact that the phone may just never be like it was. I may just find one or two more things damaged in the course of getting someone to fix it for me.

And also, I had a lot of bills on my plate that I just couldn't think much about actually getting my phone repaired. So, I just stuck with my PC.

With time, things started to get worse and worse with the phone. And just about a month or two ago, the cameras just began to "not work." It happened right in the middle of shooting this video.

Photography...?

Well, just before the screen went bad, I was into phone photography, sort of. I loved taking photos with my phone and then processing them to make them look really great, _{in my opinion.}

I could still manage to take photos and then move them to another device for editing, but when the camera blacked out, I was down to zero.

The changing narrative...

My phone has served me well over the years. It had been loyal for 3 years, so packing up now deserves nothing more than a general salute to bid it farewell. In this review, you'll find how it stuck more than a brother all this time: It deserves a befitting closure.

I didn't go far from its family line and went on to get one of its successors. And for every day that I have spent with it, I am loving that I made a carefully tailored decision according to my needs.

ℍ𝕖𝕪, 𝕚𝕗 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕖𝕟𝕛𝕠𝕪𝕖𝕕 𝕥𝕙𝕚𝕤 𝕡𝕠𝕤𝕥, 𝕜𝕚𝕟𝕕𝕝𝕪 𝕝𝕖𝕒𝕧𝕖 𝕒 𝕔𝕠𝕞𝕞𝕖𝕟𝕥, 𝕣𝕖𝕓𝕝𝕠𝕘, 𝕠𝕣 𝕦𝕡𝕧𝕠𝕥𝕖. 𝕀𝕥'𝕝𝕝 𝕤𝕦𝕣𝕖 𝕓𝕖 𝕒𝕡𝕡𝕣𝕖𝕔𝕚𝕒𝕥𝕖𝕕.

𝒮𝑒𝑒 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒾𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓃𝑒𝓍𝓉 . . .