Disconnection: A Journal Entry

So. We’re here. I broke my phone. It was bound to happen. Made out of simple glass, plastic, and lots of computer parts, it wasn’t the strongest thing on earth. I’m reasonably upset about it, I feel. It’s a big part of my life. It’s how I connect with the world, my friends, how I speak to my family, and how I keep myself in check. I use it for reminders, alarms, emails and the like. It’s an incredibly important part of my daily life. I use alarms to wake up and to keep track of time. I use my calendar to plan for things and to make sure I don’t have anything going on when I’m trying to schedule things. Music is an insanely big part of my life, so that’s another thing that I use my phone for. I text and call my parents and family with it. I scroll through social media, which admittedly, isn’t the best use of my time. I jot down notes in it, which now really sucks because I had a lot of writing ideas in my notes that I’m not entirely sure I’ll be able to get back. I’m sure this is how it felt when the Library of Alexandria burned down but on a much larger and more dramatic scale. I wonder why I’m so attached to my phone and then I realize, it’s my everything. My parents had the luxury of growing up without all these devices but I’m sure they had something similar. I’m sure their parents thought they had something they were unreasonably attached to. It’s interesting to see how many people tell me, “You have an opportunity to disconnect, now!” I don’t enjoy disconnecting. It highlights how easily bored I get, and how much I don’t like people. It’s also a little difficult to watch everyone be on their phones and not be looking around, even though I know the minute I get a replacement phone, I’ll be exactly the same.

I’m not good at journal entries, so I took to this as more of a conversation, or just me rambling and talking at someone.

-Jude

Author: Jude Ryan

I know how hard it is to be in conversations where you feel like everyone knows something you don't. My aim is to explore, learn, and to share that learning with other people, along with a couple things to help those people who feel unheard, feel like there is someone who understands. I hope to either go into law, or become a college professor, hopefully someday not riddled with debt.

9 thoughts on “Disconnection: A Journal Entry”

  1. I’m so sorry for your loss 🙁 but also at least on the bright side you can customize your next phone to match your current aesthetic and in the meantime you can work on your crochet projects which I know you love dearly.

  2. I absolutely love how you took a simple (and honestly funny) moment of you breaking your phone and turning it into a respectably beautiful piece. “Disconnection” is a really good title and relates perfectly to the journal entry.

  3. i relate to this HEAVY. when i got my first laptop, it was my everything. i had it for years, even after it was basically useless and completly broken. my parents luckily taught me how to store files on hardrives and usb ports, but the idea of being away from such an important aspect of my life felt honestly debilitating. i had a heavy social media addiction when i was younger, and it’s only been over the past 4 or so years that i’ve been able to recover from that. phones and laptops are such an amazing and important development in our society, but the effects they have are noticable and daunting. i believe every generation had an invention that was percived in this way though. whether it was video games, television, ttrpgs like d&d, or even books. its crazy to think about now. i wonder what our children’s generation will have?? hopefully not robot servants or somthing crazy like that (knock on wood)

    1. Definitely. And like almost all my stuff is in the cloud but it still sucks. I hope our children never get robot servants. That’d be a nightmare way too close to The Veldt for my comfort.

  4. The relationship between a teen and their device is strong, strong enough that it causes addiction and withdrawals. But hey, I’m a teen with the same problems so who am I to speak? I’m sorry your phone broke on the way to the dollar store 🙁
    (Was the monster worth it?)

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