On Tuesday (08 Mar 2016), I was getting ready for my fourth teaching session for the day. While fiddling with my phone, the screen stayed lit despite pressing the "turn off screen" button. I could not get it to respond in any way so I decided to do a reset by removing the battery and putting it back in.

It never turned back on since then. Sadly, my trusted companion had met its end.

As much as I like to say that my life doesn't revolve around my phone, I do take for granted that it will always be there to get information that I want to look up at any time. I'm talking about Google search, not social media.

It was exceedingly frustrating to have 3 teaching sessions to go, all the way until late at night, without any form of contact to other people. Granted that I did not have any more pressing appointments that day, I still felt annoyed.

Nevertheless, I survived the day without a phone, and most of Wednesday as well.

I learned that the information age can be truly insidious. It has caused us to expect quick transmission of data and lament lag and disconnection.

An experience like this makes me realise how neglected our social skills and resourcefulness become due to having so much information at our fingertips. We don't even bother to remember phone numbers anymore because "they are stored in our phones, anyway". What would we do if a media meltdown occurred? How would we react and would we help each other?

It really makes one wonder...