I am not going to lie; I have developed a love/hate relationship with technology. No matter where I go or what I do, I want or need some sort of computer with me now. I remember the good old days when I could go through my life blissfully unaware of what was happening in the world. If I needed to make a phone call, I could stop at a payphone. Need information, the public library was just down the street. Smart phone apps? Never heard of them. Driving directions? I pulled out a map . . . made out of paper no less. Those days are sadly long gone.
I rely heavily on technology for every aspect of my life. Ridiculously so, I admit. I use it to communicate, educate, inform, document and, quite frankly, to make money. I have multiple smart phones, and keep them running all day. Laptops too, busily humming away. I use my personal cell phone to stay in touch with my son, family and friends. When I want to take a picture, I pull out my phone. Find an address, out comes the phone. When I need a little musical interlude, I grab my phone. Everything has become tied to that oh-so-wonderfully frustrating contraption. I love the thing but surely do hate it when it misbehaves.
I use computers, tablets or smartphones all day, every day. And so does my teenage, home-schooled son. Without a computer, smart phone or tablet, class assignments are left incomplete. Banking, bill paying and social media interactions stop. And, worst of all, the loss of my smart phone, aka my mobile access to the world, really slows things down. That is just too much, as I recently learned.
These past few weeks without my personal cell phone or, lifeline to the world, have been frustrating. Quiet, but frustrating. No calls, texts, remote email connections, social media messages ... nothing. My phone has become a silent awkward paperweight, taunting me with it's refusal to cooperate.
As I rely so heavily on technology, I have taken the time to educate myself on topics like virus protection, internet security and identity theft. However, regardless of my actions and studies, I found myself in possession of a dysfunctional, completely useless smartphone. One night, I drifted off to sleep filled with the warmth of working technology. However, I awakened to a completely different scenario. My phone refused to turn on. Well, a more accurate statement would be, the phone would start and then magically turn itself off. I found this totally unacceptable and highly annoying. It was time to search for solutions. Which I did via the internet, of course. On a laptop, I might add. I searched high and low for answers; changed my search parameters, rephrased the query. You name it, I tried it; to no avail. The stupid "smartphone" was toast. (sigh) And I am still under contract with Verizon (deeper sigh).
As frustrating as these past few weeks have been, I will say that I have learned quite a bit. For example, I learned that I was far better informed about smartphone repair than the "expert" at Verizon. Make no mistake, the gentleman I spoke with was courteous, but confused. He tried to perform a factory data reset with no more luck than I. He even went so far as to take the phone to the back where he had "a guy" who "knows more about this stuff". Not that that worked any better, but at least he tried. His best guess? My phone was "possessed". While I found that humorous, it was not what I would call helpful.
While in the Verizon store, I did further research and learned my extended warranty has a $100 deductible. I consider this all but useless. Shucks, I can buy a new phone for that cost. I have no idea what on earth possessed me to pay for a useless extended warranty. Oh wait, I do know. It was a lack of research on my part prior to signing that pretty little two-year agreement with Verizon. When will I learn?
And finally,I was informed that it will be less expensive to pay out the last two months of my Verizon contract than it would be to end it early. Considering my son has a (fingers crossed) functional phone on this account, the only benefit to early contract termination is the ability to keep the same telephone numbers. I think I can live with a new number while I happily deposit the savings to my bank account, thank you very much.
These past weeks journey has been annoying yet exciting. Each search result offered new ideas to repair my phone. It sounds silly I know, but I get really excited when I think I am on a successful research mission. I just LOVE learning new things. One day, I learned that it is possible to reset an android phone. Did you know there are multiple options available? I certainly didn't. There is a "soft" reset which could be considered a reboot with attitude. This reboot can be performed while the phone is on. A hard reset wipes everything off the phone and is performed while the phone is powered off. Pictures, contacts, apps, you name it - gone! And then there is a remote reset which can be performed, you guessed it, remotely. Oddly enough, it's an app that can be used to delete all of the apps, etc. from the phone. But this little gem is accessed both from a computer and the phone. Pretty cool app, if you ask me. I would consider it almost perfect, had it worked. Which it didn't.
So, here I am with an ugly, expensive paperweight. I may not have discovered the path to success as far as the phone is concerned, but I did accomplish one thing. I taught my son that I don't give up easily. The poor kid has listened to me groan, grumble and sigh throughout the process, but he has also seen how determined I can be to solve a problem. And how extensively I can research information from the comfort of the living room couch. After all was said and done, I would say the broken phone has become a valuable tool. It became a teaching moment with my kid. A launch pad for the exchange of ideas. My son and I performed cost benefit analysis, discussed the importance of evaluating contracts up for renewal and agreed that changing your phone number is insignificant, in the grand scheme of things. Homeschool Mom strikes again!
My phone may not work, but my son and I were able to learn and grow together. How cool is that?
